Six Months in Ba Sing Se
by electric gurrl
Summary: After getting into trouble with the law, Azula is given a sentence of six months in the custody of her uncle, waitressing in the Jasmine Dragon. She plans to keep her head down, grit her teeth and wash dishes until she can go home, but she winds up thrust into a journey of love, self-discovery and the perfect cup of tea. — Azula x Ty Lee. Complete.
1. In West Caldera Born and Raised

A/N: **Some Quick Facts About This Fic:  
Chapters: **6.  
**Pairing: **Azula / Ty Lee. Some Azula/Jin.  
**Rated: **K+ for nothing you wouldn't see in _LoK _or _A:TLA_.  
**Notes: **Alternate title: The Fresh Princess of Ba Sing Se. Also, this is a requestfic from _Chasing the Endless Sunrise_, or, well, is inspired by Drabble 62. There's no need to have read it to understand, though. This is a lot about Azula realizing the effect her actions had on Ba Sing Se, and through that, her actions having effects on other people, since that suggestion was posed in a lot of reviews.

* * *

**Six Months in Ba Sing Se**

* * *

**Chapter One: **In West Caldera Born and Raised...

* * *

Azula does not know how she allowed this to happen to herself.

She has toed the law for a good deal of time, but now she has been caught with her fingers smoking, and is not entirely sure if she can wriggle her way out of some form of penance. Now she sits in front of the throne, picking at her lips and trying to think of an excuse, any excuse. She is an adept liar, and has no idea why she cannot think of _something_.

"Azula, I don't want to do anything drastic," Zuko says from behind the flames. She cannot read him from this position and it is making her heart pound. Perhaps it is a good thing that she has a little bit of fear of Zuko; he is maturing into less of a joke of a Fire Lord. "But I have to do something."

"I killed rebels. I killed people who wanted to _kill us_!" Azula snaps, sitting straight up. Zuko recoils slightly and she fights back a smirk. "You can't penalize me for that! You should be thanking me and giving me a parade!"

Zuko scratches his neck. "I _know_. But, Azula, lightning through the eye is not my idea of due process."

Azula picks at her lips and grits her teeth. She does not understand why this is such an incredible _problem_, and it is immensely frustrating. But Zuko just sits there, still contemplating what he is supposed to do with her.

Finally, Fire Lord Zuko says, "I used to admire your control. You were calm and level headed ─ I mean if the lightning isn't evident enough ─ but you've gotten really reckless and out of control."

"You are _not _my father," Azula snaps and Zuko tries not to roll his eyes. "You cannot tell me I am _out of control_. I'm an adult and I can behave how I see fit."

"You are not _technically_ a legal adult. And I _technically_ do have the same rights as your parent. I'm your conservator and have legal─"

"Please shut up," Azula says sharply.

Zuko now does roll his eyes. He must admit he occasionally _does _feel like her parent. "I only know one person who can help you..." and he does not think Azula will like it.

"Don't say..."

"Our uncle," Zuko states and Azula's face turns ashen, even in the yellow light of the throne's flames. "I'm sending you for six months to Ba Sing Se, to see if he can make any influence on you."

Azula takes a deep breath, hoping this was a hallucination. _Please _let it have been a hallucination. But it most certainly was not and Azula quickly panics, her heart leaping into her throat.

"I will take the Boiling Rock! Please send me to the Boiling Rock!" Azula shrieks, as if Zuko has just told her he is going to push her off of a cliff.

"I went through great pains to even get you allowed into Ba Sing Se after you conquered the city and enslaved all of its residents. You're going."

"You're not my real dad!" Azula repeats, for the millionth time and Zuko is, for the first time since his decision, incredibly glad that he is sending Azula to the other side of the world.

He fought and fought to maintain custody of her despite her crimes. And, apparently, she went on some trip around the world to figure herself out after a near death encounter in the Forgetful Valley, which did not improve her cruelty or sleepwalking, but _did _give her a leg up in the negotiations. Not burning down any villages for three years swayed the Council reasonably into the royal siblings' favor.

But now, he is incredibly glad to start making arrangements for Azula's passage and stay.

"Think of it as a vacation," Zuko suggests and Azula glares daggers at him. He just swallows and dismisses her.

_It will be a vacation to Fire Lord Zuko._

[X]

Two weeks later, Zuko and Azula stand in the front hall of the palace. She is dressed in green and absolutely loathing it, and she is surrounded by a number of suitcases packed with what she thinks she will need. Zuko is clutching documents and waiting for Iroh to finish his conversation about Pai Sho with the disinterested driver.

"Okay, I'm giving your passport to Uncle─" Zuko says, waving the sheet of paper.

"Why?" Azula demands in the tone of a sullen child.

"So you won't burn it. And there are a few rules that the Earth King set up. No fighting, no firebending at all, no being unescorted in public and, uh... I think that's it? You know, just use your common sense about what would get you arrested or deported." Zuko grimaces and hopes this does not blow up in his face. He put a lot of his reputation on the line to try to set Azula straight; his relationship with the Earth Kingdom is not exactly _pleasant_.

"What if I get arrested and deported intentionally?" Azula suggests, her gilded eyes lighting up with that possibility.

Zuko laughs with a small, smug smirk on his scarred face. "I worried about that for a moment, _until _I realized that the people arresting and deporting you would be your old best friends, the Dai Li. Do you want to be in their custody?"

"Ugh! I hate you." Azula makes a sound like an angry cat and crosses her arms like a child.

Zuko chuckles for a moment. "Do you remember when you used to hold your breath until you passed out when our parents would tell you that you couldn't have your way?"

Azula stops breathing, eyeing Zuko closely and he just shakes his head. She exhales and rolls her eyes, deciding that there is no way out of this as her uncle walks into the room.

"These are... many suitcases for just six months," he remarks as he examines Azula's belongings.

Zuko cocks an eyebrow. "You had to have an entire cabin on our ship just for your knick knacks."

With a shrug, Iroh responds, "Fair enough."

Azula grumbles something to herself about Iroh being a horrible hypocrite and smelling like knock-off incense, but both he and Zuko ignore her, and she is ushered out of the palace. This is one of the worst days of Princess Azula's life.

Ranked, they would be: the day she lost the throne to a water peasant, the Boiling Rock, the eclipse, the day Ty Lee broke up with her and the day she found her mother.

Yes, that is a suitable order.

She is completely silent as she is taken by a carriage to the pier, like a rich person instead of a _princess who should be carried laboriously by underlings. _Iroh attempts to make small talk twice, but Azula just stares out of the window. She has learned well to be silent, to ignore people, or, at times, she has pretended to be completely catatonic. It is effective and relatively relieving.

Finally, she is stowed on a ship as two muscular men carry all of her belongings on board. Iroh guides her to the lower floors. The ceiling is dripping. Just kill her now.

"I have given you the nicest and most spacious cabin for our journey," Uncle says and Azula supposes she has to respond somehow.

"Wise of you. You don't want me to get cramped up. Because when I get cramped up, I get nervous and when I get nervous I get scared and when I get scared people get thrown overboard." Azula takes two steps into her cabin before turning around, nearly nose to nose with Iroh. "And I am an eye for an eye kind of girl, if you know what I mean."

She slinks away before he can point out she was about to hit Zuko with _lightning_ and slams the metal door in his face.

The waves are rocky and Azula demands to have no disturbances. She is kept up, as usual, by nightmares of vivid fears and memories, trying to prevent volcanic eruptions with her bare hands, and people slowly fading away as she needs to cling to them.

Slowly, she gets up and pulls on her clothes despite being groggy, and walks to go get fresh air. It is much, much easier when she is in the palace and can just go out to the courtyard for a little while.

When she gets onto the deck, she finds she is not alone. And it is not a man or woman on their night shift either; it is her uncle. Azula always imagined he would sleep constantly, being regarded as one of the laziest men in the Fire Nation.

Cautiously, she walks to him. "Why are you up?" she asks and Iroh is stunned that she has inquired about another human's condition. It is not a gesture he expects from Azula.

Iroh rubs his face for a moment. "Going to Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation always feels strange to me. I do it often, but the feelings never seem to get old."

"I never wanted to go back either. I have no idea how you live there," Azula replies and Iroh is again startled. He thinks she might be sleep deprived perhaps, he decides as he narrows his soft golden eyes and sees the sweat sticking to her and the dark circles under her eyes.

"I think of it the other way. They say the best way to get over your fears is exposure to them. When I moved to Ba Sing Se with your brother a decade ago, I came to overcome any remaining insecurities by proving to myself I could truly move on," Iroh explains and Azula remembers herself, rolling her eyes and staring at the ocean.

"Not everyone is as accomplished as you at being _good_," Azula says sharply.

Iroh just looks at her. "I am not very accomplished at being good. It took a lot more mistakes than I openly want to admit to get to this point."

Azula chews on her lip, disagreeing strongly with that. She has never seen him accused of anything that would make polite company squirm, although she is certain that in his years as a decorated general, he must have more than a few skeletons in the closet.

"I'm going to my room," Azula says softly and Iroh opens his mouth to ask her if she came here for a reason, but she is gone.

Zuko told his uncle that he should try to help Azula. Iroh has been under the impression for some time that Azula does not want to be helped. And Zuko reminded him that Zuko once had no desire for Iroh's intervention and it still managed to rub off on him in the end.

Iroh watches Azula disappear into the ship and stares at the horizon, darkness, shreds of clouds and choppy water as far as the eye can see.

He always thinks about the same things during this journey.

[X]

_**Iroh's Memories**_

_It is a dark night, choppy waters, shreds of clouds. There are numerous nights like this at sea, and Iroh is familiar with them even as a man who fights on land. He is... haunted. There is nothing he desires to say, at this point. And there is no one he trusts enough to confide in, for machismo matters more than all else._

_ He is returning from the Siege of Ba Sing Se. They are nowhere near the Fire Nation at this point, and they have only just cast off from the land of the Earth Kingdom today. They will stop at the docks of one of the colonies tomorrow, gather severely lacking supplies, and then finally travel straight to the Fire Nation._

_ Iroh's attempt at peaceful contemplation is interrupted by someone walking into the command room._

_ "There's a letter for you," anxiously says an errand boy, his eyes wide with terror and his skin slick with sweat._

_ Iroh turns to him and accepts it wordlessly with a small nod. It has the royal seal; it must be from his father. Probably words of disappointment, or, less likely, to console him. The boy exits the room as quickly as he can, and Iroh opens the letter slowly._

_ He opens the letter, scratching at his cheekbone, and he is stunned only a few words into reading it. Floored. His father has died. That almost makes him tear up the letter, not able to handle death upon death upon death, but he decides to keep reading._

_ That was a mistake._

_ It is then that he reads Azulon's dying request, and it is then, that Iroh's fate shifts forever._

_ When they stop to restock, he leaves the ship and decides to wander. He has heard many times of people traveling the world and finding many things they were not looking for. It was something he thought he would do upon retirement, if he was not immediately made Fire Lord when he was done with military service._

_ Iroh baffles those with him by his absence, but he does not feel the need to explain._

_ He just goes searching, not for anything in particular. _

[X]

In Ba Sing Se, a beautiful girl in a green dress that just doesn't seem to be the right color for her, with her soft brown hair braided with green pearls, walks through the streets of the Upper Ring. She blends in well in the city, and no one would know from first glance that she was partially responsible for their fall.

Ty Lee throws a rock at a wall before quickly glancing around. _Oops_. She knows very well she needs to be on her best behavior because she has a strong feeling that the police, Dai Li and the majority of Ba Sing Se would take great pleasure in throwing her into prison, regardless of her being a perfectly legal citizen.

She wound up here by a sequence of events that she could have easily prevented, and she supposes she likes it. Most days she contemplates moving back to the Fire Nation, and she feels as if the novelty of Ba Sing Se is gradually wearing off. But the Fire Nation has nothing for her anymore.

Her decision to move her was solely reliant on the fact that staying in one place for too long feels wrong to her. The evident reasoning for that would probably be that she is running from something, but she has no idea what.

Six years in the Kyoshi Warriors was already too much. She was happy there for a while, but then she decided to travel the world. And as of two weeks ago, she has been a citizen of Ba Sing Se, which is better than living out of a suitcase wherever she can find a bed, _but _is getting frustrating.

She never wanted to wait for life to come to her. Her travels were enlightening and she found herself in a number of ways, and found a lot of people who made a difference. But she's getting older, she supposes. It's been almost a decade since the war ended, and she still... doesn't think she can stay in one place.

Her teachers at school used to scold her for fidgeting too much, for not being able to sit still. Her parents grew exasperated every time she ran away, starting when she was eight years old. Her desire expressed to Suki to travel places for the warriors instead of living on the island turned into breaking free of all ties and letting herself soar.

Ty Lee returns to her apartment, which is nice, and she got solely because of Suki and Sokka, who were both glad that she decided to settle down.

_"We were worried about you. Or, well, I was. Just running around the globe is really unsafe, even for someone with, uh, your talents," Suki says, smiling at Ty Lee. "We have plenty of contacts in Ba Sing Se. You can really never get bored there."_

_ Ty Lee doubts that, but she gladly accepts their help._

She flops down on her bed, moaning in frustration. Yet another fruitless job search, yet another day wandering through the city and asking for work, and never receiving. There is not a single promising lead, and Ty Lee buries her face in her pillow.

This is impossible. Being an adult is impossible and she just misses her life when other people took care of her. She finds herself missing her home often, but, for some reason, she can never summon the courage to go back to the Fire Nation.

Why she can't is something Ty Lee does not want to confront. Perhaps that is what she is running from: her past.

She supposes everything goes back to her wanting to have her own identity. Her parents could not tell her apart from her sisters. _Her own parents_.

Azula could tell them apart, despite refusing to learn their names. No, no, no, _no thinking about exes_. Because when Ty Lee thinks about exes, she starts to miss them, and then she gets into another relationship and the cycle begins again.

Wriggling beneath her silky blankets, she falls asleep despite the daylight, and decides to continue looking for a job tomorrow.

[X]

Azula arrives in Ba Sing Se and there is nothing but loathing in her gilded eyes. She glances around at the buildings and the endless stone. It smells _wrong_, although, to her, the entire Earth Kingdom smells _wrong_. She can remember her time here and it is all poisoned by the ultimate failure. After all she did, it was just swept out from under her... like everything else seems to be.

"How long has it been since you were here?" Iroh asks and Azula wonders why he has not given up yet on casual conversation. She has been, still, entirely silent.

_"That shop sells simply the best limes. And the owner is a very kind man who has a knack for kitting."_

_ "How has your friend Mai been?"_

_ "When it rains, sometimes that drain will overfill, so be careful walking that sidewalk if you are wearing new shoes."_

_ "Did Zuko have a date to the Fire Days Festival?"_

It makes her want to throttle him. His disposition is just _aggravating _to Azula. She has faint memories of him being slightly harder and sharper, but at the same time, he was a bit of a loon and his passion for tea was greater than his passion for warfare.

_How _on earth he got Azulon to favor him baffles Azula. It is that which leads Azula to believe that perhaps he were more ruthless once, more like Azula once, but it is not as if she wants to ask. That would make Iroh think she was interested in him and his life. She intends to be as icy and detached as she can possibly manage for the entirety of her six month stay.

"Ten years?" Azula offers... _yes_, there was that ten year anniversary party a few months ago that Azula hid from. Zuko told everyone she was sick, but they saw through it, of course. "I'm pretty sure conquering a city gets you a lifetime ban of sorts."

Iroh is not sure what to say to that. Azula makes him uncomfortable, he must admit. He has never had true common ground with her. Although he regrets seeing her as just an extension of her father, he still finds her to be too much like Ozai to let him ignore the metallic taste in his mouth.

She and Lu Ten did get along. There was that, he supposes.

Finally, they arrive at his tea shop, which Azula does admit is much nicer than she thought it would be. Her eyes examine every single crack in the stone, study the lettering and, as they walk inside, the dragon motifs.

"You used to love dragons," Iroh laughs and Azula digs her fingernails into her palm. "You had all of those books about their history."

"And you killed the last one," Azula replies softly and Iroh blinks in surprise. "Where am I sleeping?"

Silently, Iroh leads her up the stairs to his apartment and leads her to the guest room.

It is spacious, Azula supposes, more spacious than she imagined it to be. The amenities are decent, but nothing compared to the Fire Nation royal palace. But she is too tired to actually complain or rearrange anything, so she locks herself in her bedroom, pries open the window and slips under her blankets to go to sleep as the moon rises over the city.

[X]

"You're kidding," Azula snarls as Iroh hands her the apron. "I'm not ─ my _footservants _are dressed better than this."

They are standing in the kitchen of the Jasmine Dragon as the sun has just barely risen, and Iroh is briefing Azula on her first day as a waitress. Iroh expected there to be a good deal of resistance from Azula, particularly in having her work as a waitress. However, Iroh has come to realize that working in the service industry is good for people, particularly selfish people.

"You can make it more fashionable, if you would like," Iroh suggests and Azula forces herself to swallow and not burn his face off. "Emi wears her─ ah, there the blushing dahlia herself is."

Azula narrows her eyes at him until she hears the soft footsteps behind her and turns around. A slender girl, a little older than Azula, dark brown hair and tan Earth Kingdom skin. Her eyes are almond and slathered with green powder.

"The _blushing dahlia_?" Azula sneers and Iroh smiles and blushes. _This man used to represent the best of the Fire Nation_, is all Azula can think.

"Uhm... hi," Emi offers, waving. Azula just turns back around with a small scoff in the back of her throat.

"You know my nephew, Emi," Iroh says, and Emi nods with a slight _blush_ that Azula notices with utter disgust. "This is my niece."

"The Cr─_oh, uh_ I don't, know her..."

"The Crazy Princess will do," Azula says sharply, seizing her apron and draping it over the only green clothes she has, which feel ill fitting and unflattering.

Azula walks into the restaurant and starts examining the tables. She then blinks, utterly stunned that she has no idea what to do.

Emi then walks in and Azula sincerely wishes Zuko had sent her to the Boiling Rock.

"You just have to flip over the chairs and─"

"I _know _how to flip over a chair," Azula says sharply, seizing the leg of one and tossing it onto the floor with a loud crash that makes Emi jump. "But, clearly, since you're the expert, perhaps you should show me the ropes today."

Azula then picks up the chair she tossed and sits down on it as if it is a throne. Emi squints at her for a moment, a tad baffled.

Emi swallows audibly and says, "Oh, okay."

It is the beginning of a beautiful rivalry.

[X]

The fourth day of Azula's cruel and brutal imprisonment is the most interesting so far. For two days she has been doing this degrading labor, well, mostly forcing Emi to do everything as Iroh watched in mild pain. And then at dinner Iroh would lecture and lecture and say proverbs and Azula would stare blankly at the window until he was done talking.

Perhaps he should have been some sort of _professor_, to get the desire to _lecture _endlessly out of him. But when Azula suggested that, he just laughed as if it was a joke.

Azula is waiting tables as Emi is out, and she is trying not to get aggravated at the customers. She starts thinking of it as a training exercise, and that helps slightly. The flirtatious people, the rude people, those who speak to her as if she is something less than human. _It disgusts her_.

But the billionth table of the day is interesting.

"Hi," says the girl and Azula blinks several times. It is not a demand for tea and as Azula slides the menu in front of her, their hands touch slightly. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yes," Azula says quietly, then bracing herself for the insult.

"I'm a regular," the girl says with a warm grin. Azula still cannot tell what she _wants_. "I'm Jin, and you're really pretty. If that's not too, uh, _forward_."

Azula has no response to that. Yesterday Iroh made her take a two hour break after she threw hot tea onto the lap of a man flirting with her, but she must admit she likes the way this girl is looking at her.

"Oh, it's not," Azula purrs, a smirk flickering on her lips. "So, you like this place?"

"It's the best place in the city. How do you know Iroh?" Jin inquires and Azula likes her sweetness. _Likes it because it reminds her of her ex-girlfriend... yes... but Azula does appreciate being checked out._

"He's my uncle, actually," Azula says and Jin's eyes flash in surprise.

"Zuko has a sister?" Jin asks and Azula's lips part in surprise.

"You don't know?" Azula whispers, realizing how ridiculous she sounds and fighting the blush of embarrassment.

"I thought his name was Lee until suddenly I learned he was actually the Fire Lord," Jin says with a small grimace. "I grew up pretty much under a rock in the Lower Ring."

"Lee?" Azula cocks an eyebrow.

"He told me he worked for the circus," Jin says, smiling faintly at the memory. Azula cackles and Jin examines her closely. "He was pretty nice. Iroh came by Pao's Tea Shop a few years ago and invited me up here and I come by about every week now."

"So you know my brother how?" Azula asks as another patron clears his throat loudly for her to come over. She shoots him Ozai's glare and he sets down his tea shop silently.

"Just friends," Jin says and Azula smirks. _Lying_. Which... means she is definitely interested.

And she seems to either have no idea, or not care that Azula conquered Ba Sing Se. Most women, Azula has noticed, have been fairly into that. But they were Fire Nation women.

"So, what do you want?" Azula says before realizing it is a bit suggestive. "About tea, I mean. Of course."

Jin giggles. "Whatever the weird special is that Iroh has up. I'm adventurous."

"Oh."

"About tea, I mean. Of course."

And Azula slowly walks to the kitchens. This stay just got a bit more interesting.

"Does she flirt with everybody?" Azula inquires as she reaches her uncle.

"No. I have tried to set her up with several nice young men," Iroh replies, still smiling at the display. His eyes are twinkling and Azula hates it. "I like a girl who has a type."

"I'm not Zuko." Silence. "So, are people actually unaware that I, hm, was the one who caused the occupation?"

"It is not exactly a fact the Earth Kingdom broadcasts," Iroh admits with a shrug. "No one announced the occupation at the time, and it was not something King Kuei was proud of, to say the least."

Azula just cocks an eyebrow. This stay just got even more interesting.

[X]

At the end of Azula's first week in Ba Sing Se, in the apartment above the teashop, Iroh and Azula sit down for dinner. Her feet hurt, she is in a terrible mood, and the food is nothing compared to what she can have made for her in the palace. There is a _reason _she worked so hard to remain with her brother, and she already hates Ba Sing Se after two weeks of her six month sentence.

Iroh is prepared to inform Azula of her new job, given that Emi quit and Iroh could not even convince her to come back with a beautiful bouquet and offer of a raise. Something about six months of dealing with that dragon-woman being utter torment.

Their fight was quite unsettling yesterday, and did result in some severe damage to the shop. Azula's temper had been more controlled than Iroh imagined it would be, but Emi asked her to set a table and... it spiraled from there, to Iroh's dismay.

"I need you to interview and find a new waitress for the Jasmine Dragon," Iroh says, clasping his hands. "It will be your first real job, and I think you will find it quite satisfying once you suceed."

"You're kidding," Azula sighs, rolling her eyes viciously. Iroh shrugs and gives her a sympathetic look, although _he _is the one tormenting her. "I'm not going to find you a new waitress."

"It is your fault that we are short one," Iroh says warmly and Azula glares at him in rage. "You have your father's angry glare."

_That was intended to be a compliment_, Iroh notes, realizing it probably did not come off as such.

"Ugh!" Azula shrieks, throwing the pot of flowers off of the kitchen table. Iroh is unflinching as the stone collides with the wooden floor.

"That chip is coming out of your salary," Iroh remarks as he lifts up the pot and finds an unattractive scratch in his well maintained floor.

"You're _not paying me_." Azula stands up and makes a fiery, melodramatic exit.

Azula wraps her blankets around herself in bed, sighing repeatedly in utter aggravation. She cannot believe she is even _in _this situation, and she cannot believe that there seems to be no apparent escape. So now he is sending her on errands and making her do chores.

It is not _her _fault that Emi was so _offended_. People should simply deal with Azula and treat her with the proper respect that a princess _deserves_. She should absolutely not be penalized for the poor attitude of someone so _beneath _her. Crazy Princess or not, Azula would never be treated with such disrespect in the Fire Nation.

She does not sleep; all she can do is stare at the ceiling and count the reasons why she hates absolutely everything.

[X]

_**Azula's Memories**_

_A six year old Azula is wrapped around her brother, her elbows digging into him as she tries to pry her stuffed dragon out his hands. She is five seconds from burning him alive when they are interrupted by the looming shadow and clearing throat of their elder cousin._

_"Don't fight," says Lu Ten, grabbing Zuko's shoulder and pulling him away from Azula._

_ Azula scoffs in response as Zuko immediately obeys his older cousin. "You're in military school."_

_ Lu Ten then raises a finger. "I wasn't finished yet. Don't fight; train armies to fight for you."_

_ Zuko rubs his arm and squints at Azula._

_ "It's mine," Azula says weakly and Lu Ten looks between them._

_ "Just because dad said I was too old for it and you could have it doesn't mean it's yours now," Zuko whines, tucking it in more tightly to his chest._

_ "Well, if I can't have it, neither of us can," she says, lunging forward with burning hands, which are quickly grabbed by her cousin and stifled. _

_ "I think that we can work out something more interesting to solve this," Lu Ten says with a small sparkle in his eyes._

_ Zuko sighs. Azula smirks. Lu Ten almost hates how easy they are to mess with._

[X]

The second week passes by more quickly than the first, which was painful and excruciating. Azula goes through the motions of her shifts, and manages not to anger any of the customers. Iroh says something about being _proud of her progress_, and Azula replied that being proud of her progress as a _waitress _was the most ultimately depressing thing she had ever heard.

He chuckled at that. Like it was a joke. _Like it was a joke_.

Azula is closing up the shop on the last day of the week, relieved it is over, less relieved that she still has twenty-two of them left. So far, no one has bothered to respond to the 'Now Hiring' sign that Azula put up, seeing as it is written in tiny print and tucked away half behind a curtain.

And then everything changes when the door opens.

"We're closed," Azula sighs. "Unless you're robbing the place, in which case, _thank you_, I could use an excuse to burn down this tinderbox."

"Azula?" asks a stunned, girlish voice and the princess spins around, her heart skipping, certain she is hallucinating.

Right there, standing in front of her, clutching a half-crumpled resume in one manicured hand, is her ex-girlfriend. Azula and Ty Lee just stare at each other, lips parted slightly in surprise. This is the last place they ever imagined that they would meet again.

Iroh steps out from inside of the kitchen and smiles warmly, as if he does not notice how shocked the girls are, "Are you here to apply for the job, Ty Lee?"

Ty Lee regains some of her faculties and nods.

Azula tries not to faint.


	2. Scurvy and Kitchen Fires

**Chapter Two: **Scurvy and Kitchen Fires

* * *

Azula is wide-eyed as she sees Ty Lee. _Ty Lee_. This is either going to turn into a humongous fight, or perhaps one of them will flee. But Ty Lee runs forward at Azula, and before the princess can brace herself for an attack, Ty Lee pulls her tightly into her arms. Azula's nostrils are assaulted by the sweet scent of cinnamon as she embraces her ex-girlfriend awkwardly. She wonders if she should pat her back or something.

The hug is mostly likely the best way this encounter could go. Although, as Ty Lee is clinging to her and Azula is remembering every moment of their relationship behind her gilded eyes, she thinks this is just added cruelty to her sentence.

Ty Lee pulls away, holding Azula gently by the arms, and Azula thinks for a moment they are going to kiss. And she begins to close her eyes to kiss her, but then, Ty Lee says quite loudly, "What are you doing here? It's been so long!"

Azula swallows, fighting back a blush. _Of course she wasn't going to kiss me_, Azula realizes, feeling like an idiot, _We _did_ break up months and months ago._

"I'm here because my brother is forcing me to," Azula says as Ty Lee gently releases her. "I am not happy about it."

"I can't imagine you would be," Ty Lee says airily with a shrug. Azula is left speechless. "I'm here because I got tired of running around in circles and deciding to just, uh, find a place to take a breather."

"So you chose Ba Sing Se?" Azula asks, not bothering to hide the derision and contempt in her tone.

"It's pretty interesting," Ty Lee says and Azula chews on her lip.

It bothers her ─ no _offends _─ her to the soul that Ty Lee decided to settle down without telling her. Mostly because the reason they broke up was Azula's inability to leave the Fire Nation (unless Zuko felt like dropping her on her uncle for six months so he could have a _vacation_) and this news gives Azula a very familiar, angry, writhing sensation in her core.

"I wouldn't know. My brother has sold me into slavery," Azula purrs semi-sarcastically as Iroh steps out of the kitchen, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Are you done organizing your tea collection already, uncle?"

Ty Lee giggles at Azula's pure, raw loathing, and, mostly, how it just bounces off of Iroh. Azula just glances between them, baffled.

"I had no idea you were in Ba Sing Se, Ty Lee," Iroh says warmly and Azula feels knots in her stomach. And then she feels ridiculous because she is _over _Ty Lee; she is definitely over Ty Lee. "It is good to see you."

He walks towards Ty Lee and hugs her tightly and Ty Lee holds on for slightly less time than she held onto Azula. And then Azula realizes she notices that and mentally chastises herself. Their relationship is dead and gone.

"I've only been here a few weeks," Ty Lee says, shrugging. Her eyes flicker to Azula and Azula's heart beats faster, sending a strange taste into the back of her mouth. _Fear_. She is _afraid _of Ty Lee and that is inexplicable. "I've actually been looking for a job, and, I... I didn't know you were hiring. I actually came by just to see you and ask for some advice on living here."

"You can work here," Iroh says even though Azula is boring her eyes into him, trying to telepathically communicate for him _not _to hire Ty Lee.

"I'd love that!" Ty Lee says brightly, her eyes glittering with hope and happiness.

"You can start tomorrow," Iroh says and Azula digs her fingernails into her palms so fiercely that it hurts.

"I'd love to," Ty Lee says, grinning from ear to ear and Azula can only glare.

This is the _worst _prison sentence _ever_. She would take the asylum over this in an instant.

"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Iroh offers Ty Lee and Azula sucks in a breath that makes them both stare at her. Blushing a feverish red, she shakes her head and intently studies her nails.

"I'd love to," Ty Lee says gently, and Iroh waves his hand for her to come upstairs to the apartment.

Ty Lee looks around and is very impressed. It is even nicer than her house, and it has a more _cozy _feel to it than her cold stone walls and jade fixtures. Azula looks uncomfortable, and Ty Lee can understand why. They did not leave off well after their break-up.

She happily bounds upstairs, trying to keep her smile on and not worry too much about Azula.

[X]

_**Ty Lee's Memories**_

_Ty Lee is wringing her hands, struggling to find the way to tell Azula this. It has been weighing heavily on her heart for days, painful and agonizing. She rubs her lips with her fingers and studies Azula closely, the princess currently occupied with cutting her food._

_ They are in a restaurant a few hours before Ty Lee has to leave to go back to Kyoshi Island. These moments are precious, but Ty Lee knows she has to say what is in her heart. She _has to_._

_ "Azula, I have to talk to you," Ty Lee says softly and Azula can tell it is grave._

_ "What?" Azula dares to ask and Ty Lee swallows the lump in her throat._

_ "I can't be with you like this anymore," Ty Lee says softly, weakly. Azula does not react; her face is completely blank. "I've decided to go travel the world for a few years and see where I wind up. I would bring you with me but..."_

_ "But I'm under Zuko's thumb and can't leave the Fire Nation if I wanted to," Azula breathes, and Ty Lee does not like how entirely emotionless her voice is. It is cold and detached, and perhaps Azula has detached herself._

_ "I love you, Azula," Ty Lee whispers earnestly and Azula just shrugs._

_ "I don't care," Azula replies before getting up and leaving. Ty Lee's first thought is to make sure she doesn't have to pay for the meal, and then she feels a sinking sensation of sadness in her stomach._

I know you care_, Ty Lee thinks, but Azula is already gone._

[X]

Ty Lee helps Iroh prepare dinner, talking and laughing, as Azula sits in the sofa reading some stupid coffee table book and pretending not to be eavesdropping. She does not know why she feels so hurt or jealous right now, but she does know she will never allow them to see it.

"What brought you to Ba Sing Se?" Iroh asks over the clatter of dishes.

"I liked floating, but I had to come down sometime," Ty Lee admits brightly and Azula purses her lips.

_You could've come down with me, _is her first thought but she quickly dismisses it. No, Princess Azula is most certainly _over _her circus freak ex-girlfriend.

"I recommend traveling the world at some point," Iroh says gently and Azula swallows her need to scoff.

_A bit hard to travel the world when you're under house arrest for years, _is what she would say if she weren't trying her best to look as if her life is perfect and happy and much better without Ty Lee in it.

"Did you?" Ty Lee inquires, sounding so genuinely interested. Azula sticks her tongue out and halfheartedly turns the delicate parchment in the book. It is filled with hand drawn replicas of famous ink wash drawings by artists from the former colonies. Azula finds it utterly and completely boring.

"Yes. I..." Iroh's voice cracks slightly and Azula cannot help but turn to peek up over the back of the sofa. He looks uncomfortable, his hands slipping slightly on the spoon he is using to stir the soup. "I was on my way home from Ba Sing Se when I got the news of my father's death. After that, I went to the next port and decided to travel."

"That was probably hard," Ty Lee says quietly, made very uncomfortable by the sudden shift in tone. She did not expect things to get so _sad_.

Azula drops her coffee table book and both of their necks snap to her, before she tilts her chin up slightly and lies down on the sofa, carefully concealing the flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. She wonders, briefly, just how much the Former General Iroh _knows _about the circumstances between Former Fire Lord Ozai's ascent to the throne of the Fire Nation.

However, Azula has no idea to discuss it with him. Even someone as soft as Iroh knows that in their family, no one talks about their feelings.

She refused to even talk about her feelings while rehabilitating herself with Zuko. It was simply off of the table at all times, even it would likely be vital to her recovery. That brings a bitter taste to her mouth when she recalls one of the reasons Ty Lee left her ─ yet again, she might add ─ was because she was never emotionally vulnerable.

Azula knows very well that being emotionally vulnerable is not a desired quality in _anyone_, and she refuses to accept it. No one will see her weak, no one will see her submit.

She sits quietly and uncomfortably until Ty Lee cheerily tells her that dinner is ready, and she walks to the table with as much dignity and ice as she can put into every step. Ty Lee sits down as Iroh serves the food she helped him make, and they babble like inane idiots, which makes Azula want to burn the entire apartment down.

The dinner could be less awkward, and Azula wishes it were not happening. But she deals with it, keeping her mouth shut about _how _she ended up in Ba Sing Se, and trying to remain as steely as possible.

When Ty Lee leaves, she gives Azula a hug that starts halfhearted, but then becomes tight. Azula hates how the scent of cinnamon makes her heart pound as Ty Lee is clinging to her, but they break apart, and it is again evident that things are over between them.

Azula bids her goodbye, and immediately storms to her bedroom and locks herself inside.

[X]

After dinner with Ty Lee, Iroh wakes in the dead of the night to the sound of fumbling and crashing in his kitchen. It takes him a moment to recall that he now does not live alone, which eases the panic at first, and _then _he recalls that he lives with _Azula_, and he is out of bed so quickly that his legs run cold.

He walks into the kitchen and quickly analyzes the surroundings. Nothing is missing save for open cupboards, a fruit bowl gone and... a knife is taken from the wooden block he contains the set in. _That _is slightly more alarming.

When he goes into the dining room, he finds Azula sitting on the floor at the table, half lying down with her posture limp, adorned by orange peels like petals fallen from a cherry tree around its trunk. The knife is stabbed into the table, which, while better than stabbed into a person, does make him feel a rush of pain. It was mahogany, after all.

"Azula?" he asks, glancing at the cold lamp and then deciding to light his palm instead.

She is asleep. She is asleep. And so he carefully walks to her and touches her shoulder, saying, "Azula, wake up."

The next motion is a swift block on Iroh's part and a knee-jerk reaction that sets several of the orange peels and Iroh's decorative flowers ablaze. He stifles them with a small motion of his hand, and sees his niece looking disoriented.

"Why am I so sticky?" is all she asks before seeing the oranges around her. "... I dreamt I had scurvy."

"... scurvy?" Iroh asks, wondering if she is lying or not. But what reason would she have to lie about eating a bushel of oranges in her sleep? He cannot think of anything sinister that could involve that.

"Because of _her_. Uncle, I can't believe you _hired _her!"

"Ty Lee gave you... scurvy?"

"_Forget _scurvy! This punishment is brutal enough, particularly by Zuko's feeble standards, but I'm not going to work with my ex-girlfriend for six months!" Azula exclaims, waving her hands around as she speaks and eventually flicking orange juice into her eye and pretending it does not viciously sting.

Iroh purses his lips for a moment before walking away. Typical, like Zuko, and Azula does not mind. She would rather have people throw their arms up and flee in fear and anger than try to sympathize with her. Once she is certain he is gone, she tries to lick the orange off of her hand and makes very little progress.

He returns with a damp towel and offers it to her. Azula takes it without a word of thank you, and begins to scrub her face, hands and arms, all of which are drenched.

"Why don't you sit?" Iroh offers, trying to sound as docile and nonthreatening as possible. Azula glances at him once before walking to the sofa and sitting down, before lighting two lamps. The room at first glows blue, and then fades to a light yellow hue.

"I have no desire to discuss anything except for the terms of you either convincing Zuko to take me back or firing Ty Lee before I have to face her again," Azula says, and she would be quite intimidating if it were not for the shreds of orange peel stuck to her forehead. (Iroh decides that this is not the best time to tell her about it).

Iroh hesitates, genuinely unsure how to progress. To be honest, she confuses him, and he is certain that matters have become much more complicated by Ty Lee's decision to be a waitress alongside her.

"Perhaps she wants the job because she wants to be around you," Iroh suggests as he slowly sits across from Azula, avoiding sudden moves.

"Well, I don't want to be around her," Azula says sharply. He can immediately tell that her harsh tone is not from disdain or genuine hatred, but from being hurt.

"Why did you two end things?" Iroh inquires and Azula's eyes flash for a moment.

"I don't like questions. Between you and Zuko my life is an endless interrogation," Azula snarls before crossing her arms. And it only becomes more evident to Iroh that she is acting out of pain and strong emotion.

Iroh realizes he must tread carefully, and begins to think that perhaps Zuko did not just intend for him to be a babysitter. There are things Iroh learned in his life that he hopes Zuko will never have to, although those skills prove helpful time to time.

"Why are you so angry?" Iroh asks Azula and it only enrages her more.

"I have good reason to be. She can't just come here," Azula says, slumping in her chair. "I hate her and she can't work for you."

"You do not hate her," Iroh replies cautiously, in a tone best used to talk to vicious animals. "You love her."

"Maybe I do. If I love her I have even _more _right to be angry about this," Azula snarls, thinking she has won at last.

But Iroh just sighs. "Remember, Azula, if you let anger into your heart, it will push out your ability to love."

Azula just averts her eyes. He thinks he might have prodded her towards opening up, but she quickly tilts her chin further towards the ceiling.

"Uncle, if you trained a hog-monkey to speak in human tongues, and you taught it how to say that, all of the other animal trainers would mock and shun you for teaching an animal to say something _so stupid_," she says airily, knowing the insult is overkill but unable to think of anything better. Too complex, that one.

Iroh just brushes if off, like water over a turtleduck's shell. While Azula is much more clever and scathing in her insults, Zuko was very similar to her in ways that Iroh has only just begun to understand. Maybe she is just lost. He imagines it would be difficult for her not have lost her sense of direction over the past few years of being a fugitive, then being silent and wasting away, and then gradually taking steps towards rehabilitation.

"It must have been difficult for you," Iroh says quietly and Azula cocks an eyebrow. "To try to find a life after..."

"I managed just fine. Maybe Zuko thinks I still need to be cured, but I'm capable, I'm not a _mess _anymore and I have complete control over my life. And emotions," Azula says coldly, but he can tell that even she does not believe those lies. "I want to go home, Uncle. You have to find _some _way to make that happen."

Iroh swallows. "Perhaps you should try to make the best of the time given to you right now. You never know what you will find in the strangest of places. If you never leave the palace..."

"I'm perfectly content as a shut-in," Azula snaps before leaning back on her seat as if it is a throne. She still uses power positions, she still is stubborn as can be.

_She reminds him of him in his days as a general. She reminds him of him before Ozai took the throne and he had to find himself._

"I am sorry for intruding. I can understand why you do not trust me with your thoughts and problems," Iroh states earnestly and Azula's eyes flicker up and down the old man in search of a lie. "Will you be able to get back to sleep?"

"No," Azula admits with a shrug.

"I do not think I can either. Why don't I show you how to make tea?" Iroh suggests and Azula swallows.

As much as she despises her uncle, she cannot think of anything better to do. And maybe if she appeals to his tea loving senility he will be more flexible when she asks him to send her back home to the Fire Nation.

They get up, go to the kitchen, and in the wee hours of the morning, practice making the perfect cup of tea.

[X]

_**Iroh's Memories**_

_After Lu Ten's death, He dreams of playgrounds that burn to ashes. Swings creak, abandoned, the rust and decay eventually making them collapse into the melted metal ground where grass once grew. He passes the first playground he has seen in the Earth Kingdom, and considers it to be a sign that he must stop in this town._

_ It is, in fact, fate that brings him there. As he dismounts, he is made comfortable by the other Fire Nation soldiers surrounding him. The town seems to be orderly, and fairly clean. He finds that there is a halfway decent restaurant and settles down to order some tea and try to clear his head._

_ He has yet to decide what he is going to order when the waitress arrives. She is a young woman, and looks completely frazzled. Her hair is amiss, she is trying to catch her breath, and she is fumbling with the menus._

_ "What-what, uh, sorry, uh, what would you like?" she stammers, taking two deep breaths._

_ Iroh looks at her for a moment, and decides to go with his gut instinct._

_ "I would like for you to take a break. You look like you could use one. Come join me for tea, if you would like," he offers and she looks stunned. _

_ She does not think a Fire Nation soldier offering her tea could ever be a good thing, but she does not want to refuse; she would like to sit down._

_ "I would love to, sir," she says, slowly sitting down across from him. She glances at the owner and hopes that Ming will understand and she won't get into trouble._

_ Iroh calls for another server to help, and the girl cocks an eyebrow before keeping her judgments to herself and taking their orders. He looks at the woman across from him and how she sets her head down on the table and breathes a sigh of relief._

_ "I'm not trying to flirt with you, I just noticed you looked distressed," Iroh clarifies as he realizes how his intentions might be misinterpreted. _

_ "Thank you, for this," she says softly before sitting up. "My name is Akio."_

_ "I am G-Iroh. Just Iroh," he replies with a small nod. "This is a beautiful village. It has charm."_

_ "It's not too bad. Uh, it's nice. I agree," Akio says quickly with a small blush. "What brings you here? If it's not classified military information."_

_ Iroh hesitates for a moment before reply, "I'm just traveling."_

_ "Going anywhere in particular?" Akio asks curiously and Iroh gently shakes his head._

_ "I find the journey much more interesting than the destination."_

[X]

Ty Lee takes several deep breaths in the mirror before her first day at the Jasmine Dragon. She rubs her nose and sighs at her reflection before braiding her hair for the third time and trying to fix her thin lip paint. It is at that point that she wonders if she is trying to look so nice for Azula or not, which makes her gut churn.

She doesn't like the idea of still having feelings for Azula beyond friendship. It just can't work out well for her in the end.

The walk is not too long, through the upper ring. She trips six times on the cobblestones, which is not at all normal for someone with her excellent sense of balance. But it is because she is so _nervous_. Of course she wants a job, and working for Iroh sounds absolutely lovely.

But Azula... Azula complicates everything in Ty Lee's life, and she always has.

Finally, she arrives at the Jasmine Dragon and walks inside, finding the scent of cool stone and brewing tea to be pleasant in the early morning light. Iroh is already preparing the kitchen and Azula is turning over chairs as if they all somehow personally and deeply wronged her.

"Good morning," Ty Lee says brightly, trying not to succumb to the discomfort of Azula beside her.

"Come get your apron and I will explain the job to you. Perhaps Azula would be so kind as to show you the ropes today," Iroh says warmly and Ty Lee furrows her brow at the expression of distaste that Azula does not bother to hide.

Ty Lee tightens the apron around her body and adjusts her clothes so that it is form fitting and flattering on her slender body. And, with a deep breath, she listens carefully as Iroh explains her job, and occasionally glances at Azula playing with cerulean flames that dance on her pallid palm.

She dives into her first day and tries her best not to ask Azula any questions if she does not have to.

Azula is not terrible at the job, although Ty Lee can see the constant violent urges in her eyes, which Ty Lee honestly does not blame her for at times. It must be difficult to go from being waited on to waiting on others, especially when most of the customers are quite rude.

The first customer to recognize Azula is a man in military garb. He looks at her for a split second and says, "I don't want you serving me."

"Do I know you?" Azula asks sweetly, her eyebrow twitching.

He clears his throat. "You threw me in prison and took over my city. My name is General How, and I'm honestly wondering what you're doing in Ba Sing Se."

"I'll have the other waitress take care of you," Azula forces herself to say, realizing that eventually someone would know.

She turns to go get Ty Lee and he grabs her wrist. Immediately, she spins around and shoves him back, knocking over the table and attracting the attention of every patron in the restaurant.

"Azula!" calls out Iroh, his eyes flickering in panic as General How pushes himself off of the floor and moves into a fight stance. Iroh walks in as quickly as he can and General How hesitate as Azula carefully shifts her heels to prepare for his possible attack. "It is a pleasure to see you again, General How. My niece is... she's here legally and doesn't want to start any trouble. Does she?"

Azula nods once and moves out of her defensive position.

General How looks at her, and then to Iroh, and finally grits his teeth. "If the Earth Kingdom is alright with her being here, I suppose I won't disagree." And then he pauses. "Watch your step, Crazy Princess."

And after that spectacle, and General How walking out of the shop, Azula slumps in the kitchen, her heart racing with anger and a mixture of other complicated emotions. Iroh at last contains the situation with the other customers and follows her inside.

"Did you hear that, Uncle?" Azula says, her expression sour. "They called me crazy. They called me the Crazy Princess."

Iroh knits his brow for a moment before replying, "It's an easy mistake. Many people still call me a general although I retired decades ago."

Azula just slowly shakes her head. "I don't deserve to be treated like that. That was years ago and he should simply accept that I won this city completely fairly."

And all Iroh does is faintly frown.

[X]

On Ty Lee and Azula's break, they stand outside on the street in the cool and refreshing air. It certainly does not have the stench of smog that Caldera has, despite the city managing to not be a disgusting, rat infested shantytown like everything else Azula has seen in the Earth Kingdom.

"Can I ask you something?" Ty Lee inquires as she looks at Azula sipping her tea and gazing at passersby with judgment in her gilded eyes.

"Nothing is stopping you," Azula replies, shrugging airily and still not looking at her ex-girlfriend.

"Are you mad at me?" Ty Lee asks, sounding genuinely concerned. As if she cared at all what Azula thought in the first place.

"No. I just don't want to bother getting entangled with someone selfish, shallow and not worth my time as you. I gave far too many years of my life to a futile and embarrassing relationship with you," Azula purrs sweetly and Ty Lee bites down on her lip to keep from having a loud emotional reaction.

"I kind of thought..." Ty Lee begins before swiftly changing her mind.

A girl arrives at grins at Azula, and Azula returns a flattering and charm-laden smirk to her. Ty Lee feels her stomach churn jealously as she looks at the flirtatious glance Azula exchanges with the beautiful Earth Kingdom girl.

Ty Lee's looks at her big hazel eyes, her tan skin and her smooth features, as well as her thick dark hair restrained by cloth ties.

"Hi... this is kind of embarrassing," Jin says as she walks towards Azula. "When we were, uh, talking the other day, I never got your name."

"I'm Azula," Azula purrs and Ty Lee is confused by her courtesy. "And this is Ty Lee. Ty Lee, this is Jin. She's the most attractive regular at the shop."

Jin blushes faintly and Ty Lee feels like snapping things in half.

"So, I was thinking, if, maybe," Jin says, rubbing her neck. "If you'd like to go to this thing tonight."

And Azula, to Ty Lee's shock, does not even ask what the thing is before saying, "I'd love to. I'm getting a little tired of my life as an indentured servant in a tea shop."

Jin giggles at that and Ty Lee clenches her jaw.

"It's a live music thing at a restaurant nearby. How about I come over a bit past sunset?" Jin offers with eagerness in her eyes.

"I look forward to it," Azula purrs and Jin gives her a smitten glance that leaves Ty Lee imagining herself throttling her. _But _Ty Lee knows that she should understand that she and Azula's relationship is over for a reason, and accept that.

Jin grins at Azula before walking into the teashop and Ty Lee stares at Azula for a moment before the princess wordlessly heads back inside.

Ty Lee fights back a frown, feigns a smile, and returns to work.

[X]

As Ty Lee and Azula are cleaning up in the kitchen, Jin leans in the doorway and is talking and laughing with Iroh. Ty Lee keeps glancing at Jin, the cute, gawky Earth Kingdom girl, whom Ty Lee _knows _she is way more attractive than.

"Are you... dating her?" Ty Lee asks and Azula shakes her head.

"I hope to eventually. But it's just beginning," Azula says sweetly, struggling to hide her smirk. She does like watching Ty Lee squirm.

"Maybe we can do a double date."

Azula cackles before realizing Ty Lee is serious. "What? Do you have someone? What pathetic moron would date _you_? I heard it when I said it, ignore that."

"Sheng. I met him a week ago."

And then things... _heat up_.

[X]

Maybe Ty Lee should be flattered that Azula set the kitchen on fire. But she is just coughing up phlegm as Azula shifts her weight from foot to foot uncomfortably and Iroh is nearly speechless asa he tries to figure out where to begin in cleaning up this mess.

"Don't worry too much," Iroh says, although the charred cupboard collapsing belies his words. He grimaces at the burn marks, and then takes a few deep breaths.

"It'll be fine!" Ty Lee says brightly, patting the blackened counter as if it only got a small scuff. "Sheng is a contractor and he's really good. He made that whole veranda out of the gross chunk that my neighbor's kid punched out of their house while earthbending."

"Who's Sheng?" Azula asks and then wants to punch herself in the face for sounding so _interested_. There goes an entire day of pretending not to care about Ty Lee's life.

"Oh, he's my boyfriend. We actually met while he was building that veranda, and wow it was nice and so I, well, I started talking to him and offered him some water and..."

Azula stops listening and begins to pace in the pantry as Ty Lee blathers to Jin about her boyfriend. The princess supposes what she gains from that is Jin's utter security in the fact that Azula and Ty Lee are comfortably and completely over.

Before she can even finish her breathing exercises, Azula's solitude in the pantry is interrupted by her Uncle.

"Are you doing alright?" Iroh asks as he looks at the two girls in animated conversation despite the burnt surroundings.

"I am miserable," Azula replies flatly, her eyes glassy.

Iroh frowns for a moment and then says, "It will all feel like nothing once you're my age."

"There is only one thing I envy about one day become your age, which is... _ninety_? Something like that," Azula says and Iroh does not bother to correct her. She keeps imagining the _veranda_. "More and more of the people you hate are dead."

He follows her glare and tries not to sigh again.

* * *

A/N: I am so sorry for the eternal wait on this chapter. IRL issues struck in March, and then it turns out I had no internet or phone service on my family vacation in Maine this week. I'm back now, though.


	3. Memories

**Chapter Three: **Memories

* * *

"It was an ugly kitchen anyway, Uncle," Azula remarks coldly as she sets her head down on the table. This dreadful, scuffed table that a respectable person would have servants strung up for letting fall into such _decay_.

They are sitting in Iroh's apartment after cleaning up what they could, and Jin escorting Ty Lee home. Well, Ty Lee most likely escorting Jin, given one of them having extensive training in combat in three different nations, and one being a sheltered civilian, but that was how it had been voiced.

And Azula hates how she can _only _think about Sheng and his stupid _verandas_. What use does anyone have for a veranda?

"Uncle," Azula says loudly, suddenly sitting up, and he flinches involuntarily. "What even _is_ a veranda?"

Iroh chuckles at that and she shoots him yet another glare that could kill. He seems so _amused_ by her rage about Sheng. And he _is _entertained by it. Azula does not seem to be the type to be so preoccupied with a person other than herself, and the best part is that she does not seem to notice her clear and evident feelings for Ty Lee.

"What have you been imagining?" Iroh inquires curiously, wondering if it is right to find this funny. He supposes with his age comes a perspective on the troubles of young people that can add a lot of humor to situations like these.

"Some kind of... windows?" Azula offers with a cocked eyebrow and her uncle shakes her head. "Really, I'm just imagining her and some blend of every boy she hit on while we were dating making out with some form of building equipment in the background."

Iroh chuckles again and Azula mentally throttles him. It unfortunately brings her no reprieve nor pleasure.

"It is a form of sun porch," Iroh explains pleasantly and Azula just shrugs.

Mai had one of those, that Azula, Mai and Ty Lee once attempted to have a sleepover on, but Ty Lee was too afraid of the impending dangers of wild animals, venomous insects and possibly prying neighbors, and so they dragged their blankets and tent inside (well, _Azula _didn't) and stayed in Mai's room for the remainder of the summer night.

"What would it take for me to learn how to build a veranda?" Azula asks coolly, tapping her sharp fingernails on the table. They sound like rainfall pounding against varnished wood.

Iroh laughs again and if Azula were not keeping her fingers busy, she thinks that might have been the moment in which she struck him dead with lightning.

"What need do you have for a veranda?" Iroh asks, tilting his head to the side. Azula simply glares, her eyes molten gold. Iroh inhales deeply and sets down the book of concepts for his new kitchen. "Ty Lee does not care about verandas─"

"No, she only cares that _Sheng _built them. Clearly that's his defining quality that makes him so much more attractive than... her much more deserving candidates," Azula interjects fiercely, tired of drowning in her Uncle's senile assertions and comments.

"Candidates?" Iroh fights his smirk more successfully this time.

"People who are better for her than a _carpenter_ or really anyone in Ba Sing Se. I'm just looking out for her as her lifelong friend." The princess then realizes that she has been awfully heated about Ty Lee, and she quickly resumes a cavalier and dispassionate attitude towards her ex-girlfriend. To solidify the change, Azula shrugs and turns her nose towards the ceiling, and Iroh finds the entire ordeal laughable.

Young love is foolish, cute and meant to be laughed at by elders.

"I have a feeling that she brought up Sheng specifically because it would have this effect on you," Iroh says knowingly and Azula's eyebrow twitches in rage. He is _not _making it easy for her to remain like ice.

"Well, how unfortunate for her that I am no longer interested in her romantic companionship," Azula says smoothly, now toying with chopsticks.

"You fidget just like your cousin," Iroh remarks quietly with a wistful glint in his eyes. Azula stops playing with the cheap, slender wood and looks him up and down with a small frown.

Azula then feels a mild twinge of regret that she swiftly stifles. "I didn't mean to bring him up."

Iroh examines Azula for a moment and she tries to mask her guilt. "People don't just vanish; even in death. There are things that remind you of them all the time. I used to try to prevent it, but now I realize it is a good thing."

"You're going to try to apply this to me and Ty Lee, aren't you?" Azula sighs with a small pout and Iroh swallows his emotions. "I will admit that I have thought about her upon occasion, but I'm going on a date with Jin tomorrow night, and I'm sure she will be much better for me than Ty Lee ever was."

"You certainly do not lack for confidence," Iroh says quietly and Azula ignores him as she abandons her half-eaten dinner and retreats to her bedroom.

She finds herself thinking about her uncle and cousin, and it is strange. They never crossed her mind very often in the Fire Nation, even in the palace in which they lived together for quite some time. But, lo and behold, now she simply cannot stop thinking about them.

* * *

_**Azula's Memories**_

_Princess Azula of the Fire Nation's first memory ends with her bleeding and bruised. She is three or four, and is quietly playing in the corner, already bored with her toys, and now watching her brother, cousin and uncle with deep scrutiny. It feels wrong to her to be so left out, but she does not want to give them the satisfaction of going over and asking to be included._

_ If one were to describe a young Azula, it would be "utterly defiant for no real reason other than her own stubbornness and opposition" and they would not be wrong. Her mother and her father have quickly learned that telling her to do the opposite of what they wanted works far better than asking directly._

_ And although Azula has always been _aware _that it is some kind of stupid reverse psychology, she still finds disobedience more savory than submission._

_ But she sits, and watches, and can see Zuko looking over at her, with this glance of smug superiority. And then he just returns._

_ Her reaction is sudden, visceral and uncalculated. She was not always detached and studied in the arts of strategy._

_ She lifts up the heavy book she was using as a stand for her small metal dragons, and she smashes it down onto her small, ivory hand. Azula screams in pain, her body shocked and revolted at her mutilating herself._

_ They do, however, all spring to her rescue._

_ And she is better than included now._

* * *

Ty Lee is incredibly thrilled to be helping Iroh remodel his kitchen. She has already laid out all of her supplies as Iroh is just barely waking up and brewing his morning tea. Azula is nowhere to be found, which is good, because Ty Lee does not want to have to explain why Sheng is not here helping.

It was ridiculously stupid of Ty Lee to talk such a big game. Small lies, Ty Lee, small lies. _And don't offer for your fake boyfriend to help rebuild a burnt down kitchen_. The situation with Azula is altogether unpleasant, and Ty Lee figured out quickly that the best weapon in her arsenal is Azula's incredible issues with jealousy, entitlement and grudges.

_Picking winners, Ty Lee, picking winners..._

Groan.

"Need help?" asks Jin and Ty Lee cannot prevent her right eye from twitching. "I brought my dad's toolkit, but I don't know how helpful it's going to be."

She holds up the set of archaic tools held in place by a tattered leather bag. And Ty Lee offers her warmest, friendliest smile and pats the floor beside her for Jin to start helping with her assembly of the new counters that Iroh purchased last night.

"So," Jin asks obliviously as she starts trying to figure out how to help Ty Lee. The ex-Kyoshi Warrior gives Jin busy-work to keep her out of the way. "You and Azula know each other?"

Ty Lee chews on her lip and tries to formulate a decent answer. "We dated for a long time."

Jin's eyes flash in surprise. And then her face is washed with an expression of guilt.

"I'm sorry... if I'd known I wouldn't have been so, uh, _blatant_ with her," Jin says sweetly and Ty Lee hates the fact that she is genuine.

It reminds her of the Kyoshi Warriors. Ty Lee loved them all genuinely, and they were wonderful friends. But it felt odd to be surrounded by people who were so earnestly kind, compassionate and demure, while Ty Lee was really a vindictive and cruel soul trapped in a sweet body with a pink aura.

"You dated Zuko?" Ty Lee asks and Jin laughs loudly. _At least her laugh is gross_, Ty Lee thinks, and she feels slightly better about herself.

"Not really _dated_. We went on one date. He clearly really liked that knife-throwing girl," Jin says with a slight, amused smile. "He was a nice boy... but I wish he hadn't lied to me. I mean, he had to, I know, being a fugitive. But that's really my only deal breaker for a relationship. Liars."

Ty Lee does not feel guilty at all for how her heart soars when she hears that. Azula cannot say good morning without lying twice on her way, and there is _no way _she will not slip up and lie to Jin. Ty Lee suppresses her smug smile of impending victory and starts figuring out the placement of the wooden supports.

Azula comes down the stairs at last, and Ty Lee glances up to see her looking even more beautiful than usual. She has natural looks, of course, like the rest of her family. And she took pride in her appearance half of the time, when she did not just want to waste away, starving in her bed, begging Ty Lee to remain next to her, tangled in the sweat and misery.

_And that's why you broke up with her, stupid, _Ty Lee reminds herself fiercely, despite how perfect Azula's hair is, and how flattering her uniform has become with a few precise alterations.

It strikes Ty Lee that it is intentional when Azula leans against the counter pointedly, displaying herself to either Ty Lee or Jin. Or perhaps both. (Both certainly react.) Azula licks her lips and Ty Lee looks away and focuses on her work.

"So, where did you learn to build _houses_?" Azula inquires and the derision in her tone is lost on Jin, who clearly believes Azula is talking to her. Ty Lee is relieved when Jin answers, even if she wants to snarl at Azula.

"After the occupation," Jin explains as she carefully lines up smooth steel nails, "my whole neighborhood was destroyed. It was used as a-a sort of _outpost _for the Fire Nation soldiers there. It was... it was bad, but at least it was over. Anyway, we had to do a lot of rebuilding, and I helped."

"That's so kind of you," Azula purrs, and Ty Lee narrows her eyes. There is something slightly _off _about her voice that was not there when she first started speaking.

"It was what I had to do. The war hurt everybody," Jin says before realizing they should probably change the topic. "Those curtains are hideous. I think I better talk Iroh out of them."

She laughs, although there is something slightly hollow about it, and Azula just observes from the sidelines.

[X]

"So, the thing was cancelled?" Azula inquires as Jin arrives at the front door. The princess does not look as if she has been pacing for the past hour, her eyes wide and heart going into tachycardia. But she was.

"Yeah. I thought we could go for a walk anyway. The Memorial Park is open now, and it's really nice," Jin replies with a charming grin. Azula looks her up and down with a flicker of her golden eyes, and extends one, slender, ivory hand, that is already becoming calloused like a peasant from washing dishes for Iroh.

But to Jin, they feel perfectly smooth. She takes Azula into her hand, waves goodbye to Iroh, whom Azula ignores, and they head off into the dark, lamp lit streets. The pale moonlight shines on their skin and hair as they walk, hand in hand, and Azula allows Jin to lead her to wherever this park is.

"So what's it a memorial of?" Azula inquires as she leans closer to Jin's warm body. "And so help me, if it's his _bear_..."

Jin chuckles at the remark about King Kuei's eccentricities, but she lets her smile fade. "It's a memorial for the occupation. I mean, there... there wasn't a war in Ba Sing Se until then. And we got... it's not like we got the blunt of anything." Jin shrugs.

"You deserved better," Azula lies smoothly and Jin believes her. They deserved what they got, thinking they could hide from the Fire Nation for a century. It was only a matter of time and they were foolish to be so unprepared.

"I know," Jin replies, squeezing Azula's hand once. Azula chokes down saliva and tries to focus on having a pleasant evening.

However, she has not been on a date in... _ever_, and she is not quite sure of the conduct. But she does know that this is going quickly, and Jin is already warming up to her more than she should at this point. Or perhaps those are only Fire Nation standards, in a Nation where being cold, stoic and loveless is so rewarded, and displays of affection are taboo.

The park is tranquil, and Azula appreciates it as she gently walks beside Jin. It does feel like a _date_, from what Azula has heard about them. From ones Ty Lee and Mai told her about, as she tried to justify to herself why she would never have that.

It does feel nice to be wanted, particularly by someone other than Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai or false friends.

"It's such a beautiful night," Jin comments with a soft smile, and Azula does not snap at her for being so _boring_. Maybe boring is alright once in a while, when you are the type of person who thwarts an assassination attempt and are sent to live with your senile uncle, working as a waitress.

"It is," Azula says, and then she swallows. "Not as beautiful as you."

_Yes, yes, _flirting!

Jin smiles and a blush rises on her cheeks. They continue walking, talking about nothing, but saying a lot. And it does not bother Azula, because she knows if their conversation shifts to anything of substance, Azula's true past with the city might come up, and their budding relationship will be snipped.

Azula wasn't lying, though, she realizes as she watches Jin talk.

She is more beautiful than the star-studded evening.

[X]

"What's that?" Azula inquires, studying a humongous chunk of Ba Sing Se's wall covered in writing.

"The Memorial Wall," Jin explains and she walks towards it with great purpose. It does not take a military genius like Azula to realize she is going to a particular name.

"Who did you lose?" Azula asks, not caring if she sounds callous or not. Jin picks at her lips for a moment before sighing.

"My sister." And Jin says no more.

"Does it hurt to come here?" Azula asks, studying the wall.

"No. It's nice to have the memories."

"But it must hurt to have only memories left," Azula says and Jin studies her date for a moment.

Azula is suddenly struck by thoughts of someone she only has memories left of. Ty Lee. Ty Lee and how Azula has watched the memories within her head over and over again, trying to figure out why it all went wrong. Ty Lee, whom Azula might have gotten a second chance with, but she is already screwing it up.

"Everybody is just memories," Jin says and Azula laughs. "No, no, it's true. People are people because of the memories you have of them, and the memories you make with them."

Ty Lee. Ty Lee. Azula can only see Ty Lee in her mind's eye, and she would _easily _trade it for her _mother _or worse at this point.

"Maybe," Azula replies, trying to remain composed despite the fact that she has never regretted anything as much as she regrets this date.

"Walking with people," Jin says, her face screwed up as if carefully trying to remember something, "is like walking with memories. It's more than just a body or even a soul. Everything is a memory... and you're making more of them."

Azula looks at her feet. "I think I have to go."

Jin nods and Azula hates how accepting she is. It only makes the conflicted feelings all the more difficult.

"It was a nice date. Let's do it again, sometime," Azula says, hoping those are the appropriate words. And they seem to be, because Jin gently kisses her on the lips. Azula waits for it to feel like passion, a warmth flooding through her body like a hot bonfire on a cold autumn night.

But it is just damp pressure against her lips and teeth.

Azula is confused.

Beyond confused.

And so she treks across the Upper Ring to go seek out the one person who can heal her confusion.

[X]

Ty Lee is woken by a mad pounding at her door. She rubs her eyes and yawns delicately before rising from bed and wrapping a robe around her sheer nightgown. When she gets to the door, she sees Azula standing outside, and Ty Lee can only squint at her.

"What do you want?" Ty Lee asks, yawning loudly. Azula just stares at her.

"Get dressed. We're going for a walk," Azula states and Ty Lee pouts for a moment. She then shrugs and walks inside to find suitable clothes.

"I'm not doing this because you're telling me to. I'm doing this because I'm really, really curious why you came to my house in the middle of the night asking to go on a _walk_," Ty Lee clarifies sharply, staring at Azula with fierce eyes until the princess clears her throat and nods.

And so they walk together that night, and Azula does feel the memories. She feels exactly what Jin was talking about, only, not with Jin. It takes a few failures to summon her courage, but Azula eventually takes Ty Lee's hand in hers.

"Just as friends," Ty Lee says softly as she squeeze's Azula's palm. And it brings with her a flood of memories.

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way," Azula replies as they pass a beautiful performance art exhibition going on in the middle of the street. They stand there, watching, and Azula is reminded of the firebenders in her homeland, and how she and Ty Lee would pretend to be watching, while they were honestly just trying to lose Azula's watchful guard and make out while disguised by the crowd.

"Well this is nostalgic," Ty Lee laughs with a huge smile. Clearly she shares the same memory with Azula. "I think we should..."

Azula knows what Ty Lee is fumbling to say next, and so she leans forward and fiercely presses her lips against her ex-girlfriend's.

Ty Lee's lips still taste like memories of cinnamon candy floss and the taste of chalky lip paint. Azula breathes her in, lingering for too long on the passionate embrace. They both know that this is foolish, and wrong, and they are likely getting each other into more trouble than they can be in. Azula does not think of Sheng, or Jin, or Uncle or Zuko or anyone else who could mess this up for her. She just thinks of the fact that this kiss fills her with that warmth that the one with Jin lacked.

"We're both in relationships," Azula finds herself saying, and she thinks she will likely be awake for nights to come punishing herself for doing this. There are few thing worse to Azula than doing the right thing when it is the _hard _thing. "And we probably broke up for good reasons."

Ty Lee's demeanor could not have shifted more quickly. She was the reluctant one, the one who broke up with Azula, the one whose touch has been tainted with betrayal for years. Now suddenly she wants Azula, and Azula cannot be completely sure if she wants her.

"Sheng isn't even real. I don't even know what a veranda is," Ty Lee says fiercely, grabbing Azula by the wrists and refusing to let go.

Azula's eyes flicker in surprise. She has no idea how she could not tell that Ty Lee was lying, and the only reasonable explanation is that she was so preoccupied with her jealousy that her senses failed her.

_That is a terrifying thought_.

"You have an... _imaginary boyfriend_?" Azula asks slowly and Ty Lee takes a sharp breath. She really wishes she had not admitted to her lies.

But with a small gulp and the desire to leap headfirst into the madness that is she and Azula, she says, "Not quite. A _fake _boyfriend... to make you jealous."

Azula's lips open and close, and no sound comes out. She does not think she has ever been _literally _speechless before. The idea that the boy Azula has been seething over and fantasizing about throttling to death was _made up _is a little bit difficult to swallow.

"I don't know right now," Ty Lee admits, quickly falling the silence with her light, delicate voice. "There are really good reasons that we ended it."

"Oh really?" Azula asks breathlessly, but before they can have a genuine discussion about their feelings, a scream and a crash ring out through the street, disrupting it as if they have just been struck by an earthquake.

The crowd breaks up, screaming in panic as the performance's lights instantly go out. Azula slides onto her heels, readying herself in a fighting position as Ty Lee stands beside her.

"That's a baby," Ty Lee remarks as she sees a man in a hood clutching a living parcel.

"Not our baby," Azula replies, starting to back away as she sees Dai Li agents sliding after him, claiming rocks on their way to improve their chances and lessen his.

"Azula, we have to help," Ty Lee says, tugging on the princess's arm.

And Azula pauses, before realizing that this kind of action seems to be what gets _girls_, and so she nods and starts running alongside Ty Lee, prepared to help rescue the stolen infant.

When they reach the fight, the man is clearly a prodigious earthbender. Azula strikes and the Dai Li turn. Well, there goes Azula being unnoticed by her old _friends_. But she neglects that as she fires blasts of cerulean to distract him, carefully avoiding the baby, and Ty Lee runs up the side of the wall and immobilizes him from behind.

It was so simple; it was _textbook _Azula and Ty Lee's tactics.

And it was thrilling. Ty Lee takes the little baby in her hands, grinning at it and touching its soft, small hands. Azula recognizes the symbol on one of the Dai Li Agents' robes; he is the leader of their unit. He extends his arms and Ty Lee hands him the baby.

"You're welcome," Azula purrs as she takes Ty Lee's wrist and prepares to pull her into a victorious kiss. It was _too easy_.

"You are both under arrest for firebending within city limits."

_It was too easy._

[X]

This is a horrendously unfortunate situation. _Ty Lee _is not even a _bender_, and she is arrested as an accomplice to a firebender. Azula. Azula is always bad news and Ty Lee does not know why she expected this time to be different.

"You know, there's no sense in killing _both _of us," is the first thing Azula says after her gag is torn off. Her mouth tastes of metal and salt, and she is trying to think quickly. "One would be enough to make an impression."

Ty Lee cocks an eyebrow. Somehow, she finds it hard to believe that Azula is leading into a passionate request for self-sacrifice. And, due to this, she is quite glad they did not mend their relationship in the street before the fight.

"And which one of you would that be, princess?" asks the agent who must be in charge.

"Well, her, evidently," Azula says with a saccharine smirk and Ty Lee groans audibly. "Don't you remember how close we came to _war_? My brother would not take kindly to my death on your soil, at your hands, after the very careful reconstruction of he and the Earth King's relationship. But her... she's not going to start any world wars if she goes missing. I'm honestly thinking for the best of all of you."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes so forcefully she thinks they might pop out of her head. The Dai Li agents, usually stoic, even look somewhat perturbed by the request.

The leader clears his throat and says, "Your generosity knows no bounds, Princess Azula." Her hopeful expression is wiped clean as he gestures for his accomplices to leave with him. And with one glance over his shoulder, his last words are, "Good night, ladies. Sleep well."

The door slams shut, and the two women are left in cold silence and simmering dread. Azula rests her head between her knees and tries to analyze the situation from the cool darkness of that mental retreat.

"Azula," Ty Lee whispers, tapping the princess's shoulder. She grunts in response, not removing her head from between her knees. "They're not gonna... kill us, or anything, right?"

Another grunt.

Wonderful. Ty Lee blows her bangs out of her face with a sigh and leans against the slick stone wall.

"You have a wonderful way of making enemies. If only you could apply that to your romantic relationships you would be much hap..." Ty Lee begins, but Azula does not even stir at her insults, and so she closes her eyes and waits for her sentence. "Sheng wouldn't have gotten me arrested by the Dai Li."

Azula sits up, the blood rushing out of her head and making her instantly dizzy. "Sheng wouldn't have gotten you arrested by the Dai Li because he is _imaginary_!"

Ty Lee turns away, blushing furiously. "You know what; this is your fault, so _you _deal with it."

"_My fault_? Everything seems to be these days," Azula says, sighing and curling up into a ball. Nothing in this cell is comfortable, and she does not know why she expected it to be. "So, why did you make up Sheng anyway?" Ty Lee grits her teeth. Azula rolls her eyes and mutters, "Or just pout. Whatever makes you happy."

"_That_," Ty Lee snarls and Azula flinches as if something were thrown at her. "_That _is why we don't work out. Because _you _are... _you_."

"Well, you clearly have so many imaginary boys lining up to date you; you can afford to have a type." Pause. Ty Lee's face is tomato red at this point, and Azula wishes she were enjoying it more. "Or is it that I am the best thing that ever happened to you?"

"_Please_," Ty Lee scoffs, shaking her head.

"When was it that you realized that I was your last chance at real happiness and you just threw it away?" Azula continues and Ty Lee clenches her fists so tightly that they become numb and pallid. "I'd love to know the moment you looked into the mirror and realized no one other than me would ever want you."

"If anything I _traded _my happiness for you. Every time I started to enjoy something in my life, you would kill it!"

"Name one instance."

"The circus."

"Important mission for the good of the world and the Fire Nation. That had nothing to do with our romantic relationship."

Ty Lee grits her teeth, but she _will _give her that slippery excuse. "Every single hobby I ever pursued that you weren't as good at as me. I intentionally failed art class because you thought my drawings were better. You made me give away my stuffed animals─"

"I did you a favor. It was like dating a _child_. You're dependent and bat your eyelashes and wear cute little accessories like some kind of─"

"_You _could've fought for us, but you were too afraid of what you would lose. I would've brought you with me, if you weren't so dead set on wasting away in your bedroom. Zuko would've thought it was a good idea, but the day it was going to be okay, you got yourself into questionable trouble. And _that _is why I _broke up with you_!"

Azula's lips part in shock, but before she can reply, a very familiar voice remarks, "Sorry to interrupt, ladies, but I've sorted out these matters personally and want to see them through."

Both of their necks snap towards... _the Earth King Kuei_?


	4. Throw Them - - a Feast

**Chapter Four: **Throw Them... A Feast

* * *

Neither Azula nor Ty Lee know what to say to Earth King Kuei as he walks into their dingy prison cell. Ty Lee rubs her nose with the back of her hand, causing pain in the cartilage, but needing to cover her mouth to excuse herself from speaking.

"Were you two busy?" Kuei inquires innocently and Azula pities him. The man means well, which in Azula's book is a poor quality, but he also has absolutely no idea what he is doing. Perhaps Zuko is in need of a political marriage...

She has to fight not to smile at the thought of Zuko and King Kuei's wedding, because her faculties all need to be focused on getting out of this abysmal situation.

"No," Azula replies before hesitating. "No, your highness."

Both of the young women are quite bewildered by the man standing in front of them, and how he does not seem _nearly _as angry as his Dai Li. However, perhaps he has a pleasant demeanor even when he is dragging two innocent young ladies to death by _crushing_, or whatever they do in this savage continent.

"I wanted to thank you both personally," says Kuei and Ty Lee's jaw drops. Azula's eyes flash in surprise, but she keeps her expression as blank as possible. "I'm sorry for your treatment by the Dai Li. It _is _true that you broke the law by firebending, _but_, given the circumstances, I am willing to forgive it."

Azula blinks several times. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure what circumstances you're referring to."

"The child you both saved is my daughter," Kuei says quite warmly, only adding to Azula and Ty Lee's confusion.

Ty Lee feels quite fuzzy and confused at _that _statement, her eyebrows shooting up. Azula can barely process her _luck_, and how _finally _something is going _right _in her miserable, pathetic waste of an existence.

"Your daughter?" Ty Lee inquires breathlessly, seeming even more shocked than Azula that they got so lucky.

"And, therefore, I would humbly like to invite you to her birthday party tomorrow night," King Kuei says with a wide smile.

Azula clears her throat softly. "If I may inquire, your highness...?"

"Go ahead."

"I took your throne and enslaved your city, and it isn't as if you're even on the best terms with my nation or my family now... And I can't shake the feeling that this party is an excuse to get a noose around my neck while I'm not expecting it," Azula says warily, finally removing her gaze.

Kuei hesitates for a moment. "To be honest, I didn't like the idea of having you in my city. But your brother made a convincing argument and I've begun to trust his judgment over the years. I think the only appropriate thank you for saving the life of Hou-Ting, and to apologize for how rudely you've been treated, is to give you this invitation."

Azula purses her lips, still feeling wary. The moment he walked into the room she expected something sinister, not an invitation to a party. Then again, he and Zuko have become relatively close over the many years of working together on issues that were too messily intertwined between nations to be dealt with separately.

Ty Lee, not caring what Azula will decide, says, "I'm never one to turn down a royal party. I'd love to come, and I hope Hou-Ting is okay."

She flashes a pearly white grin and expects him to examine her, but he is still staring at Azula, as if Ty Lee does not exist.

"Wonderful. Come right over tonight."

[X]

As soon as Azula and Ty Lee are back at the Jasmine Dragon, they are utterly confused. Even Ty Lee, who was _instantly _forgiven because she's friendly to everyone and knows how to punch people in a fancy way, seems baffled by the Earth King's kindness.

"It'll be fun to go to the party. He's clearly just grateful we saved his kid, and wants to avoid an international incident with Zuko. I mean, imagine the backlash if you wound up hurt after saving the heir to the Earth Kingdom Throne. Even the people who hate you so much would be offended by that," Ty Lee explains sweetly and Azula does have to admit that she has a point.

"I guess," Azula says, staring at Ty Lee. Today has been weird, and uncomfortably so.

"Do you want me to help you get ready for the party?" Ty Lee asks, her eyes sparkling eagerly.

Azula simply shrugs and allows it.

[X]

Azula, Ty Lee and Iroh arrive at the Earth Princess's birthday party, and Azula immediately feels uncomfortable. She has never been one for parties that are not based around political agendas, and she also feels wary of the palace and everyone in it.

She knows very well that she is unwanted in the Earth Kingdom. It has been a long time since she has been dressed up like this, or surrounded by so many people. Her life in the Fire Nation consisted mostly of hiding in the shadows of the palace and refusing to come out, which is, of course, why Ty Lee _abandoned her_.

"You don't have to do anything," Ty Lee says as she notices Azula's evident disdain. "But try not to look like you want to burn down the building. That makes other people pretty nervous."

"Of course," Azula purrs as she quickly locates a corner to stand in quietly. It is now that she misses Mai, who always accompanied Azula to corners, and they would make scathing comments under their breath about everyone at the event.

Ty Lee is an entirely different person.

Azula watches how the security guards eye her, and brushes off anyone who tries to talk to her. Maybe she _should _try having fun, but she is in a genuinely horrible mood. She tries to escape to the bathroom at one point, only to be stopped and barred off and questioned until she walks away.

She is, undeniably, unwanted here, and she does not understand why. Azula just sits at a perch on the window, staring at the sky and trying to figure out how much time has elapsed, and if it is appropriate to just _leave_.

Uncle is talking to his plethora of friends, Ty Lee is happily flirting with others, the Earth King is making rounds and Azula is attempting to avoid him after two brief instances of him flirting with her in an undeniably cringeworthy manner.

Why he would be _flirting _with someone who exploited, manipulated and destroyed his kingdom is utterly baffling to Azula. She sneaks around a gaggle of people who keep glancing at her like she is some kind of strange, fanged animal, and tries to pour herself a drink, only to bump right into General How, the man who hassled her at the Jasmine Dragon.

"Who invited you here?" Her arm is grabbed and she lights one hand before realizing she was arrested for firebending yesterday. Instead, she falls limp and silent, knowing that he will look like a monster if he does anything to a girl a quarter of his size at this upper class, lavish party.

"The Earth King," Azula says sweetly, smiling faintly at him. His lip twists into a snarl.

What happens next happens quickly, and Azula barely has time to wriggle free of the man seemingly attempting to arrest her for... being alive. She turns to the party, which has gone silent as a table snaps and cracks loudly.

And no one does anything as Azula dodges another blow, refusing to fight back and be implicated.

This is completely unprovoked, and Azula thinks this man actually might be insane. She dodges, and dodges, and looks to the people for some form of help, but they watch, watch like people waiting for bloodshed, waiting for the entertainment of watching her get hurt.

It stops when Ty Lee, one Dai Li and the Earth King himself emerge from the shadows and demand the General to stop.

Azula does not stick around to see if he is penalized, or ask why he attacked her, and instead shoves through the crowd and isolates herself on a balcony.

Princess Azula has never been _hated_. The Fire Nation loves her, loves her even more than her brother, loves her despite the whispers about her madness or her failures or her disappearance that no one was permitted to speak of.

She finds her nose tingling with the imminent threat of tears, and she tries to suppress them. Their faces, their _desire_ for her to...

Azula stares at the lights of the horrible city that should have been hers in lonely silence.

[X]

"Why did you run off?" asks a voice several minutes into Azula's silent hiding.

"Why not?" Azula replies to Ty Lee. "You certainly stepped in quickly..."

"Don't be sarcastic. I didn't even know what was going on, or else your Uncle and I would've done something. It's not like that crazy guy's attack was predictable or made any sense," Ty Lee protests fiercely.

"Let's not talk about that."

Silence.

"So, what are you thinking?" asks Ty Lee as she joins Azula on the balcony. Azula begins to open her mouth to express the fact that she wants to be alone, but she thinks the only person who doesn't _actively _hate her is the girl now standing beside her.

"I'm thinking that there are moments when I realize that I peaked at fourteen," Azula admits and Ty Lee swallows so quickly she chokes on her own saliva. "There's no going up after conquering Ba Sing Se, but I think that the downward spiral was a bit harsh."

"That's not true," Ty Lee says uncomfortably, knowing very well that she is lying. "Alright, well _right now _it's true, but this is just _so far_. So far things have been awful, but you have the power to change that, you know?"

Azula grits her teeth. "Of course, of course it's on me. _I _should change to make everyone happy."

"I want you to be you."

"And what would that be?" Azula asks and Ty Lee can see her starting to crystallize. The princess has realized that she has already shown too much human emotion, and she will shut Ty Lee out, which is one of the countless reasons why Ty Lee left her.

"I have no idea. That's for you to figure out, somehow. You never got that as a kid. You were who your father wanted you to be. And I mean, yes, I do think that you're not completely a winner in the personality department, and probably never will be. But there's a reason people gravitate towards you, and why people would follow you into an inferno."

Azula silently shakes her head and Ty Lee sighs. Too late, too late.

Ty Lee quietly adds, "There's also a reason why people hate you, and it's just as valid."

Princess Azula's golden eyes flash wide in anger at that, but Ty Lee simply looks her in the eye.

"People don't have to stay the way they are at fourteen. I was told by so many people not to date you because you had manipulated me and lied and did that to tons of other people. They said it would only wind up, at best disappointed and short-lived, at worst extremely abusive," Ty Lee says quietly, having never admitted this before. "But I didn't listen to them, because people change. Life doesn't stop for anybody, even when you keep trying to relive your glory days over and over."

"Life doesn't stop for anybody, and so you just walked right by when I slowed down."

"I tried to help you up and you said no." Ty Lee walks away before Azula can continue the argument, and the princess clenches her jaw and glares at the lights of the city.

Ty Lee's shoulders are shaking with sobs that Azula does not understand. But she has no reason to stay at this hot, stuffy, disgusting party now.

She sneaks out of the event quietly and walks back to the Jasmine Dragon in the darkness.

[X]

Azula stares intently at the tea and wonders what she is supposed to do to make it _perfect_. She grits her teeth and presses her knees to her mouth and tries not to have another outburst of emotion in front of her stupid uncle and to get more of his stupid advice.

"Who are you angry at?" of course, Iroh asks, as soon as he walks up the stairs and sees Azula surrounded by spilled tea and scattered and charred leaves.

Iroh has just left the Earth King's party, and had been in a genuinely jovial mood until he now sees Azula.

"No one. _Everyone_, actually. I am angry at my brother, and _you_, and Ty Lee, and this entire _city _and my _father _for making me think it was such a _good _idea to _enslave _hundreds of people." Azula then screws up her face and realize she has just spoken about her _feelings _to Iroh. "Why have I spent my whole life thinking that people love me, when nobody even likes me?"

Iroh's heart stops for a second when he hears that, how dejected and whispered her sentence is. He cannot believe Azula has said that, and the fact that she did alarms him, and makes him feel queasy. Iroh sees so much of himself in her, that it is easy, so easy, to grit his teeth and look away.

"I like you," Iroh offers before internally cringing.

"No you don't. You have never liked me," Azula replies coldly, although her voice falters slightly near the end. "Who does? Name one person who _actually _likes me and I'll clean and organize your entire pantry."

Iroh hesitates before saying, "I have a strong feeling that you have already convinced yourself that no one does, and therefore, whatever I say, you will refuse."

Azula looks defeated, more defeated than he has ever seen her, somehow. He rubs his face and sits down across from her, fighting the twitch of his hands to clean up the mess she made with his expensive tea. _Supportive_, he reminds himself.

"What set this off?" Iroh asks gently and Azula stares at him for a moment. And, at last, with a sigh, she realizes she has already gotten in this deep, and she honestly no longer cares about her dignity or reputation.

"Memorial walls and ex-girlfriends and Earth Kings and... I hate this city, and we should burn it all to the ground," Azula says coldly, her lips curling into a snarl. "I want to wake up one morning and just see the entire world burning to ashes around me. Especially this place."

Iroh shrugs. "There are things I would like to burn. But I think you do not want to burn Ba Sing Se; you want to burn the memories you are facing here."

"_No_. I want everyone who makes me sick to... I just... I don't understand how people can be so calm and collected. I don't understand why I am never going to... I don't understand why life stopped for me but no one else."

Iroh is silent, slowly mulling over her words. He decides not to go right into the heart of her frustrations, and use a very general metaphor to try to help."There are two dragons fighting inside of every person. One that is filled with angry and vengefulness and blind hatred, and the other that is understanding and kind.  
"Well, clearly the vengeful one wins, because the best things are all accomplished out of blind hatred. Everything great I have done I have done out of spite," Azula says assuredly and Iroh frowns.

"The one that wins is the one you choose to feed. And I think perhaps you are tired of the dragon that bites the hand that feeds it."

Azula, just as Ty Lee did to her, just stands up and leaves.

[X]

Azula's favorite moment is those few seconds before she falls asleep, in which thoughts vanish, and she thinks she is safe and warm. Once she is inside of her unconscious body, however, it decides to torment her with ceaseless, vivid nightmares. Yet, all the same, like a foolish princess who keeps hoping her first love will at last love her back, Azula treasures those moments before slumber.

She is woken, however, briefly after that bliss, by the sound of something small and hard against her bedroom window. She jerks up at first, her mind immediately flickering to presumptions of being attacked. Perhaps the Dai Li have not forgotten, as King Kuei insisted and insisted as he flirted with her.

Warily, Azula steps out of her bed and walks to the window, prying it open and seeing someone outside.

"Hi!" calls up Jin and Azula feels something hot and acidic inside of her, twisting and raging. It is a _feeling _and a _bad _feeling, but Azula cannot describe or place a name to it.

"Hi," Azula replies, her mind filled with tonight, and blowing off Jin because she was mad at Ty Lee. Azula should, my all means, pursue happiness and her future instead of chasing her past.

_Oh, wonderful, _Azula thinks, _That's just what Ty Lee was telling me to do_.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to come out and go for a walk," Jin asks and Azula looks at her for a moment. The princess remembers the Memorial Wall, and thinks about how Jin truly has no idea of how responsible Azula is for the destruction of her home and the death of her sister.

She feels as if she should get some kind of thrill from manipulating the naive and pretty girl. But she doesn't.

"I'd like that. Let me get dressed," Azula responds through the window before dressing herself and walking down the stairs.

"You're covered in make-up," Jin remarks with a small laugh as Azula is illuminated by the sputtering streetlamps.

"I was at a party. It was boring and awful," Azula says calmly as Jin starts walking with her, reaching for her hand and taking it.

Azula pauses as Jin moves in silence beside her potential girlfriend, looking at the city.

"Don't you love the lights here?" Jin at last remarks. "It just gives me goosebumps sometimes. Ba Sing Se is so beautiful, and... I think it's more beautiful that it rebuilt from being knocked down."

Azula just nods.

Jin continues, "So, did you come here because of choice? Most people seem to."

"My brother sent me here on a forced vacation," Azula replies and Jin laughs. That acidic feeling rises into Azula's throat.

"He's a nice boy. I'm... I almost forgive him..."

"For lying to you?"

"No, I don't blame him for that at all. I almost forgive him for what happened to the city. I mean, it's obviously not a coincidence that he showed up and then there was a coup," Jin says with a small grimace. "I don't know. I don't think the Fire Nation is bad... I mean, I was a refugee and, yes, they did take so much from me, but nobody can help the way they were raised. A _hundred years _is too long for people to really have a choice."

The acid turns into bile.

And Jin says, "And the scar on his face... I guess he was pretty hurt too. Did he ever marry that girl? She was pretty cool. I wish I had that good of aim. I can't even land my shirt into a laundry basket without accidentally breaking a lamp or hitting my cat or something."

"They, uh ─ they ─ I should ─ I should go." Azula cannot fathom the fact that she is stammering, but she does need escape and quickly.

Jin gently grabs her arm as she tries to run. "Why do you keep avoiding this. If you just want to be friends, I'm fine with that."

Silence. "You don't want to be my friend."

Azula breaks free and leaves Jin with her hand slightly extended and her lips parted in surprise.

[X]

Ty Lee is sick, supposedly, for the next week. Azula does her best to pretend that she does not care, but she _does_. Her late night walk, her discussion about memories with Jin... it all felt like something was _supposed _to happen between Azula and her ex-girlfriend. As if the stars were aligning, somehow.

And Azula is getting beyond tired of the customers. They are frustrating, demanding and Azula has to restrain herself from simply murdering all of them. During a particularly taxing afternoon, around late midday when the shop fills, she slams her way into the kitchen and throws her kitchen into the sink.

"If you do not let me take the rest of the day off, I would not be surprised if this place was burnt to the ground tomorrow," Azula says slowly, her eyes wide and focused on her busy Uncle Iroh.

Iroh looks at her for a moment, is reminded of her struggle and nods. She turns on her heel without a thank you and leaves the shop, wiping the sweat from her brow and breathing in the air of the streets outside gratefully. Her lungs thank her for escaping the incense, sweat of strangers and smell of ten types of tea brewing at once.

Azula does not think she can stand another second of her punishment. If she recalls correctly, the Board of Nations has declared torture to be a crime against human rights, and therefore, punishable. Not that any of them would care if _Azula's _human rights are violated, because no one sees her as _human_.

That much is evident from her uncomfortable night at Hou-Ting's birthday, or any time she is around someone other than herself. And even then, her own reflection, her own closed eyelids, seem to mock the idea of her ever being wanted or powerful again for the rest of her life.

All the same, she hates Ba Sing Se, and would rather wallow in her bedroom contentedly like before. This is an awful city, and it only reminds her of everything she hates, regrets and despises.

She is certain her bitterness is evident on her face as she walks through the Upper Ring, thinking about how she would truly prefer prison or being grounded or, if Zuko is so dead set on this being called a _vacation_, perhaps a few weeks of exile on Ember Island.

Perhaps _permanent _exile on Ember Island.

Ba Sing Se has nothing interesting and no merits to Azula, despite what Ty Lee has been going on about. Likely, Azula has decided, Ty Lee is just trying to justify her poor life choices. And

Azula hates her happiness, and wants to destroy it.

But, today, something interesting at last happens to Azula on this brisk afternoon. She sees police surrounding and barking at a girl no more than five years old, without parents in sight and looking on the verge of tears.

Azula is about to turn around and pretend she was never here, until she sees the girl's yellow eyes and light brown hair. It is the eyes that make Azula stay on the scene, realizing she is likely screwing herself, as the child sees her, seems to get an idea and shouts, "Mom!"

_No, no, no... __Azula curses internally._

The police turn from the little girl and look at Azula, who somehow manages to remain calm.

"Are you her mother, ma'am?" inquires the brawnier officer and the little girl nods feverishly behind their backs.

"Yes," Azula says confidently, knowing she will regret this. "What did she do this time?"

One of the officers crosses his arms, his eyes narrowed at Azula as he analyzes her, while the other exchanges a tentative glance with his companion.

"We just caught her firebending," the same officer says and Azula is suddenly very glad that she intervened. The kid obviously was on to something.

"I'm sorry. I just lost track of her for a moment," Azula purrs, hastily grabbing the strange little child's hand. The little girl looks at her, blinking with yellowish eyes. "I promise to keep her better under control in the future."

The officers look at each other again, and shrug. "We just have to go to the Upper Ring Station to write up this report, and you two can be on your way."

_Agni_, and Azula has gotten herself into yet another mess. She curses Zuko in her head as she and the strange little girl are led by the police officers to the station. It is busy inside, surprisingly busy for this wealthy area, and Azula and the little girl are seated in a waiting area until they can be spoken to. If Azula recalls correctly, firebending within the walls is penalized rather harshly and she thinks she might have gotten herself into even deeper trouble than she did on her vengeance rampage in Caldera.

"You, kid," Azula whispers nervously and the girl looks at her, "what's your name, how old are you and where are your parents?"

"I'm Kioko, I'm almost eight and my... my parents are gone," she says, studying Azula closely. "When my mommy died my daddy left and I'm on my own. The police were going to take me to an orphanage if they caught me and I'm sorry I lied, miss, but I didn't want to go there. I was there for a while but the kids beat me up and everything because of my firebending and..."

It somehow seems even darker coming from the small, innocent voice of a seven year old. Azula sincerely hopes that, if she saves this orphan, that will be enough to convince Zuko to take her home. Helping an orphan would most certainly make a case for Azula being _good _and therefore Zuko couldn't deny her if he tried. And perhaps her ex-girlfriend would take her back...

Azula swallows and locks eyes with the police officer who gestures for she and Kioko to come into a small, stone office. She helps Kioko onto the chair beside her and clasps he hands on the table.

"You might be worried about the penalties," the officer says, his voice low and gravelly, but calm all the same. He shuffles through a jumbled mess of scrolls and folded up parchment, nearly knocking over a container of ink multiple times. "But it's usually forgiven in children who were born shortly after the Occupation of 100 AG."

The princess hides her surprise at that sudden fact. _She _caused that occupation. And it only takes a split second to guess why firebending in children of that age is not as forbidden as with adults or teenagers. Azula feels her stomach twist with a weird and alien feeling, as she realizes that Kioko's dad probably left because he wasn't her dad.

"Just tell me what I have to do and we will be on our way and out of trouble," Azula purrs and the man seems relieved. If there is anything she knows how to do, it is persuade her way out of a nasty situation.

"Simply fill out these forms to report the incident of ─ uh ─?"

"Kioko," Azula says confidently and Kioko smiles at her, her missing front tooth _somewhat _endearing to Azula.

"Kioko's firebending incident." The man clears his throat after correcting himself.

Azula has no clue what actually happened, but she fills out the forms with the most mild answers she can think of and signs as Kioko's parent, filling it out with a fake name, despite her being in the Earth Kingdom completely legally as Princess Azula. It would not take much digging to find out Azula does not have a child, but Jin Odaya... well...

"Thank you for your time, sir," Azula says smoothly before grabbing Kioko by the arm and leaving the police station as quickly as she can without attracting too much attention.

"Please, allow me to escort you home," offers a policeman with bright green eyes and tan skin eagerly. Azula just stares at him, wondering if a lie has ever gotten her into this much of a mess before. "You would be surprised at how dangerous the Upper Ring is at dusk."

Azula glances at Kioko, her lips pursed and slightly pouted, whom she was just about to drop off at the nearest place of business and get back to the Jasmine Dragon, and then looks at the officer. He clearly is into the single mom thing... hm. Ick.

"I actually was at work and still have to finish my shift," Azula says with a silent prayer to any spirit that could possibly be listening. _Please let me get out of this..._

"I'll take you there," he says egerly and Azula has to give him _some_ credit for his enthusiasm. It _does _feel nice to be desired instead of caught in the sticky web of lying to Jin and quietly pining after the uninterested Ty Lee.

And therefore, she is walked, with Kioko latched to her arm, to the Jasmine Dragon, where she bids the officer goodnight and goes inside. And _then _he comes in for a cup of tea. Azula's eyes flash at Iroh, alerting him that something is wrong, and he walks to the teashop.

"Were you arrested?" Iroh asks in concern and Azula shakes her head.

The officer interjects before Azula can say anything, "She and her daughter just had to file a report. It's no big deal, happens all the time. So, I heard this is the best tea shop in the entire Earth Kingdom..."

Azula smuggles Kioko upstairs and cannot believe her bad luck. First the party, then Jin, Ty Lee, _this_. Perhaps fate actively _hates _Princess Azula.

"You, go, play with some... vegetables or something."

"What?"

"Or tea leaves. That coffee table book," Azula suggests weakly, realizing she has never even interacted with a small child, excluding once or twice speaking to her half-sister.

"Uh... okay?" Kioko squints at Azula in the generic 'staring at an insane person briefly' look, and walks to the sofa.

Azula sighs and sits down until she hears Iroh's heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.


	5. Who the Sick One Really Is

**Chapter Five: **Who the Sick One Really Is

* * *

It is unnerving, to Azula, to see what she has done. To see that she did something unspeakable with the gifts and talents given to her, and more so that she never even noticed. Even more distressing is that no one even brought it up, or seemed to think anything of it.

Her intellect, her talents of persuasion, her bending, her _ambition_; they all could have been put towards a better use than this. No, no, _no_. Ba Sing Se had to fall, it _had to _and it was the right thing to do at the time. The Fire Nation gave Azula plentiful reasons why it was the right thing to do, and why the Earth Kingdom needed to fall.

If it had been cleansed by fire, as Ozai had intended, then Azula would still be hailed as a hero for her efforts here. Then, she looks at Kioko, and her grubby little face, and thinks about how the girl is going to be forced to be an outsider, a girl who was arrested because she was a firebender.

Azula was very focused on the big picture of her conquest for years.

But it is difficult to see the big picture behind a pile of corpses.

[X]

Iroh walks up the stairs, his heart pounding. He has not had to lie like that in a long time, and while he is not opposed to a lie when needed, he does not like the idea of being wrapped into one of his niece's fables. When he arrives on the main floor of the apartment, he sees the little girl flipping through his coffee table book, one hand in her mouth.

His eyes then drift to the left and fall on Azula.

"Is she yours?" is the only thing Iroh can think of to ask.

Azula clears her throat and rolls her eyes. "Yes, I impregnated myself, and then within the space of two hours, carried the baby to term, gave birth, and then she aged seven years."

Iroh sighs, trying to remain patient.

"Who is she? Why did you say she was yours?" Iroh could not be more confounded by Azula showing up with a _child _in hand, of all things.

Azula sighs and tries to think of a reasonable answer. The idea of admitting how she felt responsibility for helping Kioko would make her look like a weakling, and saying it aloud would _confirm _the fact that Azula has a complex reaction to the fact that her occupation had so many unpredicted effects.

"She's a firebending girl. She was in trouble with the police, and she's orphaned. I wound up getting stuck taking her home," Azula says coldly, shrugging. "I don't intend to _keep her_, of course. It was simply my duty as the Princess of the Fire Nation to stand up for a firebender being discriminated against by the Earth Kingdom."

Iroh cocks an eyebrow and Azula turns and strides into the kitchen, eternally grateful that she does not have a tell. She practiced in mirrors for hours, entertained herself with the very fact. Azula came to the point in her life where she felt this sick, twisted feeling in her stomach when she told the truth.

She lied about mundane things like what she had for breakfast or what type of shoes she wore for her training session. Then Azula has a bitter recollection of Ty Lee sobbing after their fight as Azula coldly looked at her and felt nothing, save for blame and disgust. She was crying because Azula had lied to her, but Azula does not know what Ty Lee was _expecting_ in the first place.

And now Uncle seems to be _expecting _Azula to take some kind of spiritual journey and weep openly as she pours out her soul and her agonizing guilt about the blood of thousands on her hands. But Azula is not guilty, just... responsible.

"I would not have expected you to take responsibility for a stranger. Even more so an Earth Kingdom child," Iroh says, his eyebrows raised slightly in surprise.

Azula scoffs. "Oh, because I'm such a monster that I would hand a begging child over to the police. She's a firebender anyway... and look at her eyes. I don't think she counts as an Earth Kingdom child when she almost looks like me."

The princess has started brewing tea with vigor, pouring her confusion into it. Her desire to make the absolute perfect cup has entertained Iroh as he watches. Azula has been fighting the itch for firebending or fighting by making tea, and he constantly struggles not to chuckle at it.

"Kioko," Azula calls across the room and the girl stands up on the sofa to be able to see over it, "what kind of tea do you like?"

"Mint!" Kioko replies instantly before sitting back down.

"Wise choice," Azula remarks as she fumbles through the overstuffed cabinets. She does not turn to her uncle, but it is clear she is addressing him when she says, "I expect you to allow Kioko to stay here until I decide the best course of action to take."

Iroh cocks an eyebrow.

"I would love to. My home is open to anyone in need," Iroh says and Azula rolls her eyes.

This cup of tea is not perfect, but it is better than last time. Kioko seems to like it, at least when Azula pours half of Iroh's bowl of sugar into it, and makes the little girl's face light up happily. Iroh sees the twitch of his niece's lips when she does so, but he keeps his observations to himself.

Iroh has seen her infinite potential over the past two months, and he can only hope that she will not squander it obsessing over wanting to turn back time.

[X]

Kioko yawns loudly and curls up in a ball on the sofa after drinking her tea. It is much later than the little girl usually goes to sleep, and she has never slept on a surface as cozy as this couch.

"You should go to the guest room," Azula says, noticing the drooping eyes of her new problem. Kioko might be an issue Azula is unsure how to resolve, but Azula does want to make her feel wanted for once.

Azula saw her despondence in the police station, knowing that her firebending made her a leper in her society. Therefore, no one is better for her than Azula, and the princess takes the responsibility of showing Kioko that her bending should be _pride _and not _shame _very seriously.

"Where?" Kioko asks as Azula hesitantly picks her up. She hopes the little girl will not react in distaste, but Kioko placidly sets her head on Azula's shoulder, and is asleep before Azula manages to put her in the bed.

The princess looks at her for a moment, and takes a deep breath. Her body is tense, her temples throbbing and her pulse pounding. Azula has no clue why she took this risk. She leaves, gently shutting the door, and walks to the living room to see her uncle waiting for her.

"You are quite good with her," Iroh says in pleasant surprise.

Azula shrugs. "It's none of your business. But I am rather disgusted by the fact that you think I am so cold that I would leave a child out to die in the streets."

"You feel you owe her," Iroh remarks and Azula's expression sours. She does not like being psychoanalyzed, or told what she is supposed to be feeling. And she does not need this old man's input. "Because it was your doing that left her orphaned and ostracized."

How Azula could _not _take offense at that statement, she has no clue.

"No. No I don't think it was my doing that left her orphaned and in trouble," Azula says sharply to Iroh. "It was not my doing. It was just a reaction to it. They can be blamed for how they respond to what I did. And I was justified, Uncle. I was _more than _justified in what I did!"

"Why are you suddenly shouting?" Iroh demands, sounding smug and wise, and Azula glares at him.

"I will no longer accept your invasion into my life. You will not speak to me in that tone, and I refuse to play your cute little game. Oh, let's all try to Redeem Azula. It will be such fun." Azula burns the box of tea leaves in her hand to ashes, but it does not satisfy her for a moment. "My brother has been trying for years, but, the truth is, I won't change unless I want to. I will not apologize for the way I have chosen to live my life."

Iroh clenches his jaw, trying to think quickly. He is losing her, and he is losing her quickly. She was so close, so close to making progress.

"I see so much of myself in you─"

"That isn't true. And that will never be true. You want to know what I'm angry about? The fact that I was on top of the world when I brought down those walls out there. I was adored, beloved and I was destined for greatness."

"Your father was using─"

"My father was not using me. I conquered Ba Sing Se, I killed the Avatar, I did not care about the blood on my hands, because there would no longer be a Fire Lord Ozai, or even a Fire Lord Azulon. They would only be remembered as people who brought Fire Lord Azula into the world! That was how it was supposed to work out!" Her throat is raw now. She digs her nails into her palms. "But instead, I'm nothing but the Crazy Princess, getting all _choked up _about the child she orphaned."

Silence. Azula could destroy the entire world right now, like the dragons of legend.

"You need to let it go," Iroh says quietly and her face contorts with utter rage.

"I can't let it go," Azula snarls at Iroh. "Why would you even suggest that? Why would I ever let it go?"

She sinks onto the sofa, staring weakly at her feet. Azula cannot help but hate herself for having this reaction. She wants to convince herself that she was right, and she wants to convince herself that she did nothing wrong. These _feelings _belong to cowards like Zuko, or people who are foolish enough to regret their actions.

Sometimes inflicting pain on others is necessary to do the right thing. And the right thing was conquering Ba Sing Se. Azula _deserved _it, she did it and it should be a badge of honor that she wears with pride for the remainder of her mad existence. _But _instead, she can only feel nausea when she thinks of how much she languished over memories of victory.

"If you do not let it go, you will suffer endlessly. You have to," Iroh says fiercely, sitting down across from her. He looks confident right now, proud and stubborn. "I know what you feel. It is the opposite of pride and ego, to see the consequences of your actions."

"I see that what I did was _pointless_. It was a _pointless _waste because _you _stole the city back from me! It was a waste because in the end, it meant absolutely nothing! I lost everything I gained and I will _never _get it back!" Azula screams, trying to show anger and brutality, trying not to show the fact that she just wants to cry and sleep for a thousand years.

Iroh is silent. "I think over the past years you have realized the frailty of your own life. And perhaps the price of ambition, and just how fragile power is. I think you have realized how your actions can have a ripple effect on the Universe, and sometimes those waves will do things that you do not intend."

"That's ridiculous," Azula spits, but Iroh can see his truth in her eyes. "I would be more enlightened by throwing darts at a book of proverbs with the notes of a madman in it, and reading random pages than conversation with _you_."

She runs, she runs because she does not want to confront this reality.

[X]

Ty Lee comes in for work two days after Azula unofficially adopted Kioko. She is already dressed in her uniform, her hair in a prim and neat braid, and her make-up flawless. Clearly, the acrobat wants to make a good impression, and look as if she has not spent over a week tormented by the decisions she is being forced to make.

She does wish Azula had never come to Ba Sing Se, more often than she should.

"Who's that?" Ty Lee asks, looking at the girl Azula is talking softly to.

The little child is sitting beneath the window, holding out her palm with her cute face screwed up in concentration. Azula looks oddly gentle, and Ty Lee cannot figure out why until she sees the little girl's _golden _eyes, and the fire she is trying to control in her hand.

Ty Lee's eyebrows shoot up as she tries to figure out what could possibly be going on.

"I'm Kioko. Hi!" says the little girl, the fire in her hand snuffed as she waves at Ty Lee. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm Ty Lee." She is baffled, and rubs her eyes, wondering if she is hallucinating this. "I work at the teashop."

"When you're not pretending to be sick. Or were you tending to the illness of your imaginary boyfriend?" Azula mocks and Ty Lee sighs. The soft Azula she saw for a flicker of a second has disappeared.

Kioko scampers to the pantry as she sees that the adults want to talk to each other. She tracks down Iroh and insists that he let her help pick out the tea leaves for the day. He laughs hard at her jokes, and he is always grateful, even when she spills things or accidentally burns them.

"Is she yours?" Ty Lee asks quietly and Azula shrugs.

"She's an orphan, and a firebender. I got ensnared in her problems and I've been... taking care of her until someone takes her off of my hands," Azula explains as coldly as she can.

Ty Lee rubs her lips together and moves to wash her hands. "Someone takes her off of your hands?"

"Yes. I obviously am not mentally fit to be a mother, even an adoptive one," Azula explains and the words sting. Because Ty Lee had said them, in her long speeches about why she was not sure if she could stay with Azula.

"I'm sorry for those things I said then," Ty Lee admits reluctantly and Azula does not acknowledge her. "Maybe I can help you out with tracking down some information about her. I do have some friends at Ba Sing Se University."

"And you need a university why?" Azula inquires.

"That's where a lot of the city's less important records are kept." Ty Lee dries her hands on a towel and turns to face her ex-girlfriend. "I would love to help you."

"Well, aren't you charitable," Azula says bitterly, and Ty Lee thinks she sees pain in her eyes, not anger or resentment. "I am glad you're back at work. It was pretty lonely here."

Ty Lee takes that as a compliment.

[X]

At lunch, as the two waitresses sit in the back rooms of the Jasmine Dragon, Ty Lee is subjected to the first of Azula's actual emotions that she has been since the princess was barely able to get out of bed. She became detached, as she became less sick, and it did not bother Ty Lee until the coldness of Azula was giving her frostbite.

Ty Lee did not mean to bring up the coup, but she did.

"Why was I given that decision to even _make_?" Azula realizes slowly. "Why was I given any of those choices when we were in the Earth Kingdom? I was fourteen and I had never seen anything more than Caldera when my father sent me into the world and told me to choose who lives and who dies. Raw power and talent and intelligence mean nothing without knowing what to do with them. No one should have expected me to act in a different way. When I know I'm the smartest, most powerful person in a room, and I've never been taught how to control myself, it's irresistible to exercise those abilities."

Ty Lee gazes at Azula for a minute. She did not expect this after all of the resistance from her. And Ty Lee, she can see herself, and she can see her pain and guilt. In her time dating Azula, she never thought she would ever see the princess regret her actions. It... gives Ty Lee a certain kind of hope.

"You were just taught how to _be _controlled," Ty Lee says softly as she takes Azula's hand in hers. The princess accepts the gesture silently. "I shouldn't have been forgiven by anyone. What I did at the Boiling Rock had nothing to do with _morality_ or _remorse_. It was just..."

Azula says nothing. She does not want to think about that.

"How have all of you people worked through this, anyway?" Azula snaps. "My brother, my Uncle, _you_. How is it easy for you people? I should have never... never... I should have never..."

"Should have, would have, could have. Stop living in the past. I told you on that balcony that you needed to move on with life. That's all I want from you."

"I don't know how. It makes me feel sick to think about _accepting _what _scraps _I've been given. I was the Queen of the World! How could I ever abandon that! I was _perfect_! I was perfect and now I'm a disgrace."

Ty Lee shrugs. "Alright, let _me _give you a choice. You can forgive yourself for your imperfections and have an actual future and a life and me, or you can be perfect, and be alone."

Azula swallows, stares at Ty Lee. The acrobat can see the sparkling of tears in her eyes, and she thinks that perhaps Azula has had some kind of breakthrough for the first time. But then Azula slips her hand away.

"I would rather be a perfect monster than a flawed human." Silence. Ty Lee averts her eyes. "I'm leaving this place. I have had enough of Ba Sing Se to last a hundred lifetimes."

Ty Lee is left behind, sighing softly, as Azula storms up the stairs to go write to Zuko and demand passage back to the Fire Nation.

[X]

Ty Lee walks into the tea shop early in the morning, as Azula is sipping her tea and showing Kioko how to contain a small flame in her hand without it raging out of control. Azula made the brew in attempts to be perfect, but it is too saturated with mint, and the flavor is not nearly subtle enough. She still has not made the perfect cup of tea, and she doubts she ever will. The acrobat smiles just a little bit until Azula looks up and she quickly wipes the expression from her face.

"Kioko, go upstairs," Azula says softly and the girl runs off wordlessly, still playing with fire.

The papers in Ty Lee's hand lead Azula to believe that this is about Kioko, and she doubts the little girl needs to hear about it.

"I managed to scrounge up some information on Kioko's adoption papers. This city really likes its beaurocracy," Ty Lee says with a small, uncomfortable laugh.

She has to admit trying to figure out how to adopt a child with her ex-girlfriend is a tad more than awkward. However, Kioko seems to be the key to getting Azula to realize how she can make up for her past and forgive herself. Ty Lee may never date her again, may never marry her and have children like she imagined when she was young, _but _she thinks she can help Azula learn to forgive.

"This paperwork is nauseating," Azula remarks, her lip twisted into a displeased snarl as she casually flips through it. "Who did you flirt with to get it?"

Ty Lee clenches her jaw. "No one."

"Oh, so your imaginary boyfriend helped you out?" Azula says sardonically, laughing at her own joke as Ty Lee's face flushes bright red.

"It seems like she still has living relatives," Ty Lee explains. "A grandmother, who once checked in on her, but didn't make any effort to adopt."

Azula contemplates that new information. "Perhaps we should speak to the grandmother, and see if perhaps she could take Kioko in."

Ty Lee makes a nervous groaning sound. She does not think she and Azula can just prance into the Lower Ring and start knocking on doors until they find the woman whom they are seeking. Then again, Azula seems set on the idea, and it would be decent progress.

"I promised I would help you, and I will," Ty Lee says and Azula averts her eyes. "Did you write to Zuko?"

"Yes," Azula says honestly. "He said he would send people to check up on me, and then, if I still wanted, they could bring me home. I've served over half of my sentence, anyway."

Ty Lee swallows and wonders why this hurts her so much. "Do you want to go to the Lower Ring after work?"

Azula hesitates. "No. I'm planning on going back to Caldera, and I don't want to chase fairy tales in this disgusting city."

She starts to walk away and Ty Lee's heart skips a beat.

"Azula," Ty Lee demands loudly, grabbing the princess by the arm and holding her in place. "Stop running. Stop running right now. I think what you've done in your life is justified. Your actions in Ba Sing Se and Caldera and everywhere else you caused suffering were monstrous because you were taught to be a monster."

"I was taught to reach my full potential. If I had to abandon human weakness for it─"

Lips collide with hers, cutting off her words. Ty Lee holds Azula there, her hands behind her back. She wants the kiss to last forever and a day, because she knows that confronting the princess like this is risky.

Ty Lee pulls away, but still keeps Azula in place, as gently as she can.

"You were taught to _limit _your potential to only one thing. You were taught that you were worthless and useless and unwanted if you ever made a mistake. You have it all backwards right now, because only staring at the past is not the clearest view of reality." Silence. "Your potential is limitless, if you just admit it and try to make a future for yourself."

Azula is expressionless, emotionless and numb. She drops the suitcase that her knuckles have turned white around and lets it fall to the floor. "I hate this city."

"Give me a chance. Please," Ty Lee whispers. "Give this a chance."

"My escort to the Fire Nation will be here in four days. I'll give it until then," Azula says quietly.

[X]

Azula does oblige, after work, and goes to the Lower Ring with Ty Lee. They studied the papers intently, and managed to narrow down a neighborhood, and they have hopes of asking around until they find the woman they are looking for.

Her name is Akio. And Azula and Ty Lee find her, after two hours of scouring and debating whether or not they should give up.

Akio stares at Azula and Ty Lee, looking rightfully baffled. "What do you two want? I don't like visitors."

She looks young for a grandmother; Azula imagines she cannot be older than her own mother. But she also looks weary and weathered by the world, at the same time.

"We're here about Kioko," Ty Lee blurts out before Azula can stop her and weave a plausible lie.

Akio licks her lips and hesitates. "Come in."

Azula did not expect that to go so well. She exchanges a glance with Ty Lee, and they step inside the decrepit home. Small animals are running around, Azula notices in disgust.

"Poodle-monkeys," Ty Lee says, grinning and bending down to pet one. "Aww, good poodle-monkey."

"I breed them for a living," Akio says casually before clearing her throat. "Do you two want tea or something?"

"We really just want to talk," Azula says as Ty Lee welcomes another eager poodle-monkey into her arms. She giggles as one licks her face, while Azula and Akio gravely sit down across from each other. "Or _I _just want to talk, I suppose."

Akio is silent.

"I didn't adopt Kioko for a reason," the grandmother says calmly. "I haven't spoken to her mother since long before Kioko was born, and I also knew I couldn't offer the girl the love she deserved. I haven't loved a human in a pretty long time."

She lifts a poodle-monkey onto her lap, as if for an example. Azula suppresses a look of distaste.

"I've come across her. She was in trouble for firebending," Azula says softly and Akio cocks an eyebrow.

"Her mother was a firebender as well," Akio says and Azula's eyes flash in surprise.

"What do you mean? I thought she was a bender because of the Occupation of 100 AG," Azula says rapidly, leaning forward so swiftly that she nearly falls out of the creaky chair.

Akio smiles faintly and shakes her head. "No. Maybe. I don't know what became of my daughter, I suppose. She was the child of myself and a wandering Fire Nation man. I loved him, but he moved on pretty quickly after our month or so together in my village."

"A Fire Nation man?" Azula asks and Ty Lee's laughter of being tickled by poodle-monkeys is silenced as she pays rapt attention to the conversation.

"A General, actually. I thought he was pretty amazing, until I found out that he was a butcher of people like me." Akio's lightly wrinkled lip twists in disgust at that poisonous memory.

"I'm sorry," Azula breathes, glad she did not divulge who she was when she came in. This woman resents the Fire Nation enough to abandon her child and grandchild. "Do you know his last name? I was involved in the military in my youth, and I'm only wondering if I'd ever heard of him."

Good. Ambiguous, or so Azula hopes.

Akio swallows and studies Azula. "He was a very kind man, when I knew him. It surprised me, and that's how I got caught up in him. It's not very often that you meet a prince."

Azula again shifts her position vigorously to keep from falling over. She imagined this conversation would be brief and informative about the orphan Azula is caring for; she did not imagine to discover that the orphan she is caring for is related to her.

"General Iroh?" is all Azula can manage. Ty Lee coughs and chokes as a poodle-monkey bounces on her stomach, but she is focused on the shocking discussion.

"Yes." Akio nods and then looks away. "Then you can see why I was ashamed."

He is not so perfect. He is not. And Azula relishes in that fact, and looks forward to returning to the Jasmine Dragon and confronting him about his past mistakes. A _butcher _she called him ─ and a man who abandoned a young pregnant woman and never mentioned her again.

"Are you sure you don't want to take Kioko in?" Azula asks softly. Akio shakes her head. "I would give you money, if you want. I'd pay for any expenses."

"That's awfully kind of you, little girl, but I've made my decision about my family. I don't even want to look at her," Akio says lightly and Azula grits her teeth. "She's an atrocity, you know? At least to me. Kids bred of war and violence and a sick, diseased nation of people who don't have a single pure soul between them all. I would appreciate it if you two leave."

"You don't even want to look at her?" Azula snarls as Ty Lee grabs her wrist and hopes to prevent violence. "Would you look at her grandfather?"

"I don't understand," Akio says, slowly shaking her head.

"He's my uncle," Azula declares and Ty Lee sits up, ready to fight if she has to.

"So, you're the Crazy Princess, huh?" Akio laughs mirthlessly and Azula stands.

"You're sick. She deserves better than you." The princess stands up and moves to leave, tugging Ty Lee along with her and avoiding the yipping poodle-monkeys.

"Well, Crazy Princess, I want you to look at this neighborhood, and the widows and orphans and destruction and poverty and tell me who the sick one really is."

Azula averts her eyes and refuses to acknowledge her, dragging Ty Lee with her and speeding down the streets until they find a more isolated sector, away from what she just had to confront.

"I never thought your uncle ─"

"I don't want to speak about this," Azula snaps, digging her fingernails into Ty Lee's wrist.

"Let's get dinner," Ty Lee offers weakly, even if she feels queasy from the encounter with Akio.

Azula nods.

[X]

Azula and Ty Lee walk together through the Lower Ring in the dark of the night. They are certain of their safety, together, and Ty Lee wanted to show Azula a little known restaurant that she sometimes ate at. The princess _liked _some of her food, even if she continuously complained about the atmosphere, decor and service.

They are nearing the gates when it happens. An assault, an attack, and Azula wonders why everything in Ba Sing Se wants to _kill her_. She shoves Ty Lee out of the way as they both burst into action against the assailant, expecting a mugger, but finding a cloaked woman.

Recognition spreads across Azula's face, and Ty Lee wonders what it could be. The assailant uses that pause to attack, and her firebending illuminates the isolated alleyway. Azula grabs her wrist and pushes her against the wall. Ty Lee disables her bending as she attempts to kick flames at the princess.

"What are doing in Ba Sing Se?" Azula hisses, looking at the woman. The _wife _of one of the men Azula killed in her rampage that got her sent to this dreadful city in the first place. She knew that they would stop at nothing, which is why Zuko's hand was forced, but she did not expect to be followed to Ba Sing Se.

"I'm here to avenge my husband, and to make things right for my children," she says as the paralysis sinks in. It makes her heart beat out of control. "You had no right."

Azula pushes her forcefully against the bricks. "I had every right to kill the collaborators who tried to help with the near assassination of my brother and obliteration of my bloodline. It was justice."

"It was the strike of a wild animal who spent too much time in a cage," spits the assassin and Azula lights her fingers and stops just short of burning her face. The woman turns away.

"Then you should expect how brutal this is going to be─"

"Azula, don't kill her," Ty Lee says fiercely from behind, and Azula refuses to turn and face her. She refuses to stand down, because Azula has never felt so weak, and the death of this woman will make her feel strong.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't," Azula snarls as she presses her knee more tightly into her target's gut. It makes the assassin whimper, her shallow breath rattling with fear and adrenaline.

"Because you're not a murderer," Ty Lee insists loudly, her voice echoing through the empty street. The scene falls silent as Azula slowly steps back and away. The acrobat's eyes light with hope and joy, and the assassin crumbles onto her knees, beginning to cry hysterically with relief.

Ty Lee moves to Azula, moves to kiss her, but she stops, frozen in place as the night air crackles loudly, and Ty Lee is briefly blinded by the surge of lightning.

"Your lies don't entertain me. I _am_ a murderer, and I was born and raised to be one." Azula says softly, pushing Ty Lee away from her and leaving a smoldering corpse and a trembling ex-girlfriend behind.

And Ty Lee thought Ba Sing Se had changed her. Ty Lee's lip trembles as she stares forward, trying to keep her emotions under control. But she does cry, nonetheless, and she wonders how many times she has sobbed over that woman.

Ty Lee is no longer sure if Azula is worth suffering for.


	6. A Matter of Perspective

**Chapter Six: **A Matter of Perspective

* * *

Azula reaches the door of the Jasmine Dragon and a panting Ty Lee grabs her arm.

"What? We get to call my uncle out on what a lying fraud he is!" Azula spits and Ty Lee glares at her. _Glares _as if it is Azula's own fault that Ty Lee is deluded.

"I'm going home. Come find me if you remember why we got together in the first place," Ty Lee says coldly, an ice in her voice that Azula did not know was possible.

The princess has no response as Ty Lee adjusts her shoe and then strides off into the darkness, eventually disappearing behind the buildings of the Upper Ring, as Azula looks on breathlessly.

Azula shakes her head. It is unimportant. Ty Lee will come back on her hands and knees, won't she? _She always does_. And so Azula enters the shop, climbs up the stairs and finds Uncle reading Kioko a story. She looks entertained by it, but her neck snaps up and she loses all interest once she sees Azula.

"Hi!" Kioko says blithely and Azula sees the only person in Ba Sing Se who does not look at Azula with anger. Or the only person in the world who does not turn their head and then quickly look away, like whenever Azula bothers to go out in Caldera.

Kioko has no idea that Azula is the Crazy Princess. She just sees her as the lady who helped her out of the orphanage and is not good at all at making breakfast. That, to Azula, is very refreshing.

"Uncle, we have some quite serious things to discuss," Azula says calmly and her tone concerns him. She is not being whiny, or indignant; she seems to have a real and deep concern. "Kioko, why don't you go get ready for bed? I think Uncle bought you more pajamas than one kid could ever use."

"I like to shop." Iroh smiles warmly at Kioko as she scampers away at the speed of crashing lightning. His creased smile fades when Azula sits down across from him.

"I dislike how many emotional conversations I've had to deal with on this trip," Azula says with a sigh. "I still would have preferred the Boiling Rock." Azula remembers herself and clears her throat. "I met Kioko's grandmother today. Since Ty ─ Since _I _am trying to adopt her, it was a natural stop."

"What happened?" Iroh asks, studying her closely.

"Her name is Akio. And, I will be blunt, Kioko is your granddaughter." Azula says with her arms crossed. It is startling to her that she manages to stay so calm and collected. She feels like she has just scored an incredible victory over her uncle, but, strangely, it feels a bit hollow.

She hates Iroh, and she always has. Azula never hated Lu Ten, certainly. Her aunt and grandmother blend together into the same person, and she does not remember either of them well. Save for her grandmother's odd collection of monkey figurines, and how perfumey she was on her deathbed.

Iroh was always the enemy, according to Ozai. And Ozai was the only person that Azula could trust.

But, right now, she has to admit that over the past few months, she has made some new memories of Iroh that are not quite as poisonous as the old ones. And while she will _always _find him annoying, perhaps there is a point while forced together with a person that you have to learn about them.

She has put on a lens of clarity when looking at the past.

Iroh never cared for her at all. He is a _monster just like her_. But she does remembering him with a filter of loathing.

"Akio was a beautiful young woman," Iroh explains, looking at his feet and sighing. Azula clenches her jaw and tries to look as admonishing as possible. "I fell for her like autumn leaves. But it was very short-lived. I found he while I was on my quest for self after finding out that my father had died and been replaced by my brother."

"So she deserved being left pregnant?" Azula demands coldly and Iroh slowly shakes his head.

"No. She was a good person, and if I had known that… that she was, I would have behaved differently."

"You would have paid her off, just like my father did repeatedly." Azula glares at him, and he looks at her in melancholy confirmation. She supposes she can give him a half-point for honesty.

"I was in her village for a few weeks. A few weeks is not enough time to build a relationship. A few weeks is enough time for a couple of memorable adventures, and kind faces that eventually blur. Perhaps if I had more time with her, it would have been different."

Azula examines him. "And about Kioko?"

Iroh smiles faintly. "I think that Kioko likes you a lot. I know that you are looking into the adoption process to help someone adopt her, but I have looked at your papers because I am prying old man, and I can see you have not even looked for a single person or method of adopting her out."

"That is a rude invasion of my privacy. You have no understanding. You are just as bad as me and you should be remembered as a monster instead of a kindly man who serves tea," Azula spits and Iroh hesitates.

"It took a lot of time to be a kindly old man who serves tea. Like I said about General How calling you crazy; it's an easy mistake, I am still called a General sometimes although I gave up the army so long ago," Iroh says and Azula remembers the incident all over again. "To be honest, you have not put much effort into changing people's opinion of you."

"I don't want to. If they cannot accept me for who I am, they are unworthy of my attention. I will not apologize for how I live my life," Azula says coldly and Iroh studies her for a moment.

"Do you still think, as you said that day, that you won this city fairly?"

"I think I won by terms of war, and what I executed was fair." Azula then stares at her feet. Right afterwards, Jin showed her the Memorial Wall. "But this city is much more than a red pin on a map, and while I brought the walls down and take pride in that, as the Earth Kingdom would take pride in destroying Caldera, I don't think that it is a reasonable excuse for me."

"Excuse for what?" Iroh has a sickeningly twinkle in his eye.

"This conversation is boring and over. I just want you to know that I think you are as much of a sick old man as my father or grandfather, or any other general. You say it's an easy mistake? Perhaps more people should realize that you can't have your rank in our military without killing hundreds. I win."

Azula leaves before she can accidentally blurt out any other ridiculous thoughts on her foggy and tired mind.

[X]

_**Azula's Memories**_

_ "You've killed people?" Zuko asks, shocked. _

_ Azula had mentioned it casually, as anyone else in the military would say. Military service _is _mandatory in the Fire Nation after all, once of a certain age. Just because Azula is a prodigy and does everything earlier than most does not mean she is exempt from the truth of the matter._

_ People are wrong to say the Fire Nation is ruthless. But, on the other hand, almost everyone has killed or created weapons to kill or mended the wounds of killers._

_ Zuko and Azula are alone together, and since they are both pitiful at small talk, they discuss how much they have changed over the years they were apart. It was only three, but it feels like a thousand._

_ "I was a soldier in a war. That's what war is. You think all the Earth Kingdom soldiers just went to live in a farm out west? It's just people killing each other. And I was good at it." Her words are pointed but expressionless and clinical. It is the true sign that any humanity in her is gone._

_ "I've never killed anyone." He does not sound as self-righteous as usual, just curious, and a little lost and Azula is amused by it in a sick way._

_ "You were never a soldier." Pause. "Neither was our father. Sometimes I think he doesn't have a grasp of the frailty of his power because they've all just been little stone pieces on a table like some kind of board game. I'm always more worried that he'll be ruined than I'll be."_

_ Zuko scoffs and Azula cocks an eyebrow._

_ "Why would you worry? If he's ruined you get the throne. I'm not going to pretend for a second he intends to give it to me, even if he trusts me now. If he says he's proud of me. I'm not a soldier. I don't have a kill count to brag about."_

_ "Nobody is bragging." Silence. Zuko is baffled by her words. It felt like something Azula would be proud of, and her tone leads him to have more questions than answers. "It's... interesting."_

_ "Interesting?"_

_ "You feel very powerful, but very weak. Because if you can do it to someone, someone can do it to you."_

_ More silence. Azula watches the sweat on her brother's neck and knows it is not from the early summer heat wave. This is why she does not tell people things. Lying is fun, yes, but also easier. She lies about petty, insignificant things. Her shoe size, what she had for breakfast... everything. But it's all because honesty has gotten quite hard._

_ "But, there's a kind of deterioration of it at some point," Azula continues, finding opening to Zuko of all people to be easier than she thought. "The first time you kill someone is the hardest. I did it by accident, which I'm sure made it easier than some kid fresh out of school handed a sword and told to slash. But it doesn't matter if you're some Earth Kingdom little boy or Fire Lord Sozin himself; it's hard. To grasp mentally, I guess or something. I never faced a moral struggle about it, because I was applauded for the accident."_

_ She is quiet for a moment and Zuko takes a deep breath. When she looks at him she sees that he wants to listen and it intrigues her. It is almost as if he cares._

_ And so she continues, "The second one is a little easier, definitely. My second was cathartic. It was the man who exposed my plot to you. I told them I wouldn't hesitate to strike them down and I did. The third one is just neutral, almost. And after that you get to the point where you just do it to watch the expression change."_

_ Zuko sits very silently, unsure how he can respond to that. She realizes he is uncomfortable and it does not please her as it should, mostly because she was not intending to make him uncomfortable. She picks at her chapped lips and Zuko watches her peel the skin off with her fingers and not flinch._

_ He has to help her, not that she would ever want to be helped._

_ "Just to watch the expression change?" Zuko asks without meaning to. He wanted to change the subject but found himself fixated on her glassy gold eyes._

_ "Yes."_

[X]

Ty Lee hates that the only thing she could think to say to stop Azula was a lie. She knows Azula is a murderer, but she also knows that Azula is a person. There _is _a shred of humanity in her if you know where to look. And Ty Lee just wants that shred to grow.

But she does truly think that perhaps Azula is not worth suffering over anymore.

"I thought about her," Ty Lee mutters to herself as she tries to find a toothbrush and get into bed. "I told myself that when I thought about exes, I started to miss them. I _know this _about myself. I _know _that I start to just see them as good memories and not bad ones."

She comes up short of the toothbrush and searches around for anything she can rinse the taste of food and bile out of her mouth with.

"It is a horrible cycle, and I think I should request a brainwashing from the Dai Li to forget all of my exes. Especially Azula." Ty Lee grimaces in the mirror, decides upon plain water, and then flops down on her bed.

Ba Sing Se was a poor choice.

Ty Lee is stuck there, remembering all of those sweet, happy times, painted lavender in her mind. Azula being witty, occasionally emotional. Azula shoving people out of the way when Ty Lee was being too polite. Azula waking up screaming and sobbing, and accepting Ty Lee's arms. Azula at the pond in the palace, throwing gifts from her father into it and watching them sink, because burning them seemed much kinder.

It brings a smile to her lips, but she has to force herself to know that the bad memories must outweigh the good.

Suki once asked Ty Lee who her best date was with. _Azula_. Suki, startled, then asked Ty Lee who her worst date was with. _Azula_.

Ty Lee should have never gotten involved.

[X]

Azula has yet to make the perfect cup of tea. Uncle says it is not just memorization; it involves _love_. That is ridiculous, because Azula can barely love a _person_, much less a cup of hot water with leaves soaking in it.

It is good tea, at least. She has made progress, but progress is not perfection or success.

Kioko is up, carrying a book under her arm. It looks old, and Azula leans to examine it.

It is Azula's book, from when she was a child. Why _Uncle _has it, Azula has no idea. She is subjected to a series of memories of carrying it around, of the ridiculous facts about dragons.

Of Lu Ten asking her to tell him something he doesn't know, and most of the time they were facts about dragons. But he never laughed or mocked her. That is why Uncle has the book. Because it was not Azula's first.

"Do you like that?" Azula asks and Kioko groggily nods.

"Can you buy me food?" Kioko asks, yawning.

"There is food in the apartment," Azula says softly before Kioko shrugs.

"I don't like any of it." Another yawn.

Azula squints at her briefly, and decides she might as well. Iroh agrees, and they travel wordlessly together.

[X]

"Can I try to talk to you?" Iroh offers as they walk down the busy street. Azula is stuck with him, whether she likes it or not, because she has no idea how to shop for Kioko.

"Yes. I won't promise to listen, though," Azula replies with a lofty sigh. She glances around the street and wishes she understood Ba Sing Se better.

"You showed great compassion to Kioko." Silence. He is right, but Azula says nothing. "You say it is because she is just like you. Look at that stranger, right there."

Azula pauses. "Are they also one of your abandoned love children?"

Iroh does not even falter, and Azula hates that. She wants him to hurt like she is hurting.

"That stranger has parents and people who love her, just like you," Iroh says and Azula scoffs. "That stranger has moments of victory, just like you. They have moments of anguish and suffering, just like you. That stranger will one day grow old, just like you. That stranger will go through the cycles of illness and recovery, just like you. That stranger will one day die, just like you."

"I don't get it."

"For my entire life, I thought that I was above everyone. I thought it would help me achieve and be remembered forever in honor. But it only made me suffer, and made the people around me suffer. Those strangers are living beings, like you, at your core, are just a living being."

"I am a…" _I am a deity because that's what they all said and that's what I _want_. _

But Azula's thoughts shift, _I am small. He is right, and I am looking at that total, filthy stranger and they have the same limitations of humanity that I pretend I don't._

And then they get more forceful, _And I am infinitely small because of it._

Iroh's lesson backfired, he notices as he watches Azula's lip twist into a snarl of frustration, and her long strides towards the first shop. But perhaps he can break through to her, before her escort comes to pick her up in two days.

"Let's say," Azula last says as she examines fruits and wonders if children like them, "that I actually have reason to be reformed. Do you honestly think that you can undo well over a decade in six months? Did you think that perhaps your wisdom would give me a miraculous breakthrough in _less than a year_?"

Iroh scratches his arm. "No. Nobody would expect something like that. It's one journey out of a thousand you need to take."

Azula frowns and moves on to types of bread. She glances for some kind of idea of what Kioko would like, since the girl was so unclear.

"It's pointless. People don't change unless they want to, and I think I have put in enough time to know that a tiger-monkey can't change its stripes, no matter how many ex-girlfriends, tea recipes, memorial walls and consequences of my actions that you shove in my face."

"I would be miserable if I never changed from my fourteen year old self." Iroh laughs. "I feel bad for anybody who knew me then. I think, while Zuko was foolish to think he could force you to change, it's equally foolish to want to stay the same forever."

Azula pauses, realizing that it is the one thing she has realized in Ba Sing Se. That perhaps she has looked on her past with an unfair and polluted nostalgia. She does not have to lie and say that she regrets; she just has to swallow the very bitter realization that her image of a flawless past and glory days are not very accurate.

She will, however, keep her mouth shut about it.

But Azula is well aware that she has chided Zuko for clinging to the dead dream of a happy family. They were _never happy _even if they were not murdering each other at one point.

Azula is clinging to the image of a girl who did not exist.

[X]

_**Azula's Memories**_

_Lu Ten is made of happy memories, but that is probably because Azula never gained the time to make any bad ones. _

_ They get along, when Azula is young. He thinks she is funny. He is ruthless like his dad and her dad and their grandfather, but he also is kind enough to teach Azula how to meow at the palace cats and get them to trust her._

_ He gets her the first book about dragons. Azula carries it around with her for years, becoming enamored with the brilliant creatures._

_ His father killed the last one. _

[X]

"Do you like these?" Azula suggests to Kioko as they at last reach the apartment. Jin looks up and smiles at Azula and Iroh, setting down the paintings she was helping Kioko draw.

Kioko lifts one up and shoves it into Azula's hands. "This one is for you."

Azula squints at it, holding it away from her face to catch a glimpse. She cannot hide her laughter at how perfect the painting is. It is Kioko and Azula fighting some kind of stick monsters with scribbles of damp blue and red paint coming from their hands.

"This is wonderful," Azula says, the compliment not feeling awkward at all in her mouth.

Father only complimented Azula by bragging to others in front of her. He never once told her she was good enough at anything, and Azula has exactly one goal with Kioko. To not be Ozai, like everyone assumes she will be.

"I know." Kioko shrugs and smiles and Jin snorts with laughter. She sees Iroh and hands him one, which is far more tame, and is of him brewing tea with Kioko. His figure is less than flattering, but he thanks her anyway.

"Mine is much cooler," Azula says with a cock of her eyebrow. "I was asking if you liked these plum things."

"… apples?" Kioko asks softly and Azula frowns.

It is Iroh's turn to laugh.

"I know what an apple is," Azula hisses. She just presumed the Earth Kingdom had completely different fruit.

[X]

Azula goes out with Jin after teaching Kioko a few firebending moves. Kioko progresses very quickly, and Azula now understands why. She has royal blood in her veins. Azula must have sensed it subconsciously, which is why she felt the need to help Kioko.

Or so Azula keeps telling herself.

"Are you really leaving tomorrow?"

"My escort is getting here tomorrow. I leave the next day," Azula explains as she accepts Jin's hand in hers. "I doubt you want to come."

Jin shrugs. "I'm pretty happy in Ba Sing Se, but you should visit. At the anniversary of the building of the walls, the city lights up in such beautiful colors. It's amazing. That's two months from now or so."

_Much, much _too soon for Azula to return, if she ever does come back.

"Can I tell you something, before I go?" Azula asks Jin. The Earth Kingdom girl is buying two strange, stained ice treats. Azula examines it and tries to figure out how to eat it as they start walking again.

"Lick it. Don't bite; it'll hurt your teeth," Jin says, pointedly licking her own.

Azula likes it, but she tries not to show it.

"Do you ever think that people see the past as much better than it really was?" Azula inquires and Jin nods.

"And they see the future as worse than it really turns out." Jin chuckles at that statement as Azula bites her lip and thinks about Ty Lee yet again.

Azula wanted to turn back time; Ty Lee wanted to make a future together. Azula did not understand for a long while, harboring anger and confusion, because how could Ty Lee _not _want to regain her glory days? But now she sees that perhaps her memories were not too accurate.

"I have to be honest right now. It's not what I'm remotely good at." Azula takes a deep breath. "Ba Sing Se is the location of my greatest victory, and for years afterwards, I hated that this city would not be my legacy. I can still remember how I had never felt so happy as that night, and the day after."

Jin swallows, knowing what Azula is talking about. She had feared it, but she was halfway prepared to hear it.

Azula rubs her neck. "I, however, have realized that I have been depriving myself of more happiness by being fixated on trying to get that exact feeling back. I also have to say that I can't be with you, because I was the one who designed the coup. I was the one who brought the walls down and started the occupation. I am really not your type, because you are clearly a very nice person, who deserves someone else very nice."

"I don't… I don't know…" Jin frowns. "I thought it would be a vacation fling anyway… You're still in love with her, aren't you?"

To that, Azula can only sigh. "Yes, actually."

"Tell her you love her before it's way too late." Jin smiles. "But first we're completely finishing this date."

She grabs Azula's hand, and the princess conceals her surprise.

Azula expected the confession of her being responsible for the darkest days this city faced would make Jin despise her.

But it didn't.

Jin sits down on a park bench eventually, and Azula is puzzled.

"Do you remember what I said about my philosophy about memories?" Jin asks, studying Azula.

"That people are just memories, and that's what they're made of."

"Yes. And shared memories link people together in really beautiful ways. I have some pretty nice memories of your brother, and a couple nice ones of you."

"Those were incredibly insignificant."

"_That _is a matter of perspective."

Jin looks up at the sky, and Azula does too. They talk about other things, Jin tells funny stories and Azula makes witticisms about people they see in the park. It is platonic, and neither of them mind.

This is a memory Azula thinks she wants to keep, and when she says her last goodbye to Jin, she feels content.

[X]

_**Iroh's Memories**_

_Iroh thinks that he remembers his father as someone better than he was. And Iroh thinks he remembers himself as someone better than he was._

_ As he looks at himself in the mirror, at last home, in this empty palace ruled by a selfish man, Iroh realizes he is remembered for nothing but failure. People look at him and see a dead child and dead dreams, and Iroh believes he will never shake that._

_ He keeps staring in the mirror, like he never has before. His face becomes distorted._

_ Iroh needs a reason. He needs to erase the pained memories._

_ He does._

[X]

Azula has finished packing, with the silent help of her uncle.

He hands her an envelope. "Open this when you are alone. It is very personal from me, and I fear your jabbing comments will hurt my feelings."

She knows he is teasing her, but she just sighs and tucks it into her clothes. "Kioko! Kioko, do you have your bags packed."

"I don't know what to do with these ones," Kioko whines, looking very distressed.

"Uncle, for the love of Agni, did you buy her more useless junk?" Azula snaps and Kioko laughs.

"I like useless junk. Look at this!" Kioko rummages in the stretched and breaking bags and withdraws a small, weird green contraption. She pushes on it with her small finger and tries to make it fly, but it falls flat. Azula rushes to pick it up, and Iroh cocks an eyebrow as she puts it in her own bag.

"How about play with things that aren't flying razors? _Uncle_," Azula snarls and Kioko nods. Iroh conceals his laughter.

The ruckus downstairs reveals that Azula's escort back to the Fire Nation has finally arrived. Iroh goes downstairs to let them in, and after a few more moments of Azula packing in silence, she hears just one person come up the stairs.

"Zuko?" Azula asks, her eyebrows shooting up in shock. "You're Fire Lord. What are you doing in this disgusting city?"

"Still disgusting? Your four and a half months didn't make you realize the beautiful and excessive charm of the Earth Kingdom Cultural Capital?" he asks with a smile.

"It would have probably been nicer if I were on vacation and not sold into slavery by my own brother." Azula rolls her eyes. "This was a waste of time."

Zuko shrugs. "It was honestly just to keep you out of the way while I dealt with the New Ozai Society. And maybe to torture you a bit."

Azula flashes him a warning glance. "Don't you ever dare do this again. Accidents happen to many people. Even Fire Lords."

"I really didn't expect much, but I am surprised you lasted this long without asking to come home," Zuko says and Azula shrugs again. Then, the Fire Lord suddenly notices the little girl. "Who is that?"

"Our cousin," Azula says swiftly, her lips twitching with a smile.

"Uncle!" Zuko shouts in horror and Kioko looks very confused. "I-I sorry. What's your name."

"Kioko," the little girl says brightly.

"_Princess _Kioko," Azula corrects.

Zuko stares at her for a moment. "Huh?"

"I have put into motion documents to legally adopt her. Perhaps you can speed them up a bit with your Fire Lord influence." Azula says it as if reading a grocery list, and Zuko does not even have time to take it in.

Azula frowns.

"Is there anything left you want to do?" Zuko asks and Azula has been thinking about it. "I doubt they're ever going to let you back into Ba Sing Se."

"You heard about my arrest by the Dai Li?" Azula inquires curiously and Zuko's eyes widen. Clearly not. "I want to make one last visit. Well, two. I'm going to attempt to get the girl."

"I hope that works out for you…"

"What? You don't think it will. I'm charming and honestly I have suffered enough. I deserve to at least escape this awful city and get the girl, ZuZu."

He cannot tell if she is kidding or not, but she is gone before he can do much more.

Zuko looks at Kioko, his soon-to-be-niece and weakly smiles.

[X]

Ty Lee is looking at job postings when she hears a loud knock on the door. She walks to it, wondering if she should avoid opening it or not, or at least touch up the dark circles under her eyes first.

"Azula… I…" Ty Lee hesitates. She did give herself the rule that, if Azula chased her, she would give her a brief chance.

"I'm sorry for all of the things I've done here," Azula says and Ty Lee makes a strange face. _That _is hard to believe. "I mean it. I'm not just saying that to get you to make out with me. While you are the one who made up a fake boyfriend in a house that doesn't seem to have a single veranda, I am the one who has been so caught up in the past that I… Anyway, I know why we broke up."

Ty Lee can only blink. "This is really sudden."

"I'm leaving in an hour. Come for a walk with me," Azula says.

"Are we going to get arrested again?"

"Maybe." Azula smirks and Ty Lee sighs.

"Why do I always let you do this? Why?" she snarls, mostly at herself.

"Because I am gorgeous, witty, perfect…" Azula lists before taking Ty Lee's hand.

It is true, like Jin said. Walking with Ty Lee is like walking with memories, and that is nice. Even if most of her memories are pretty painful.

Ty Lee and Azula wind up at the Ba Sing Se Memorial Wall. It is the absolute last place Ty Lee imagined Azula being, and Azula feels the same exact way.

"Why are we here?" Ty Lee asks in confusion and Azula sighs.

She hates being so honest. "The city has absolutely nothing to offer but ugly souvenirs and gross _everywhere_, but this, I'm never going to see again. And, honestly, I didn't look very closely last time."

"I can't even bear being here. All of these names are dead because of me."

"I think that I'd like to look at all of the effects my tiny actions have had. From both sides. I want perspective, before I go, seeing as this entire trip seems to be some kind of divine plot to get me to realize just how significant Ba Sing Se was."

"It wasn't just a bunch of parties and awards and glamor."

"Yes, it was an act of war, and I will be in the history books forever because of it. It is, therefore, fair, that I, as an intelligent woman who is trying to get a handle on her life again, to have true perspective of what I will always be remembered for."

"You don't have to have _just that_."

"I have no idea. Your memories of me will disappear when you die. So will everyone else's. But my name in connection to the fall of the Earth Kingdom and coup of Ba Sing Se will live eternally, even if nobody is alive anymore who can remember."

Ty Lee knows she is right, and she knows that Azula is the type of person who likes to analyze every last detail before she is content.

And, honestly, Azula needs a bit of contentment. Maybe this glimpse of perspective into her immortal acts is the one thing she will get out of her trip to Ba Sing SE.

Maybe not.

She will not get Ty Lee. At least for now, the acrobat has decided. But, Ty Lee has, in these short months, started to remember why she does love this woman, even if it takes them another ten years to put the pieces together.

It will happen eventually, Ty Lee knows.

But old wounds don't heal this fast, and that is definitely true judging by the fresh flowers all over the memorial wall, and the faint sound of a woman crying nearby.

[X]

_**Ty Lee's Memories**_

_"Azula," Ty Lee says to the mirror, on her thousandth rehearsal for their break up. She loves Azula, and she will always love her, eternally. No matter what happens. But right now, they're hurting each other. "Azula, I am more in love with the memories of you than the you right now."_

_ Ty Lee disposes of that breakup speech._

_ Because it is too true for either she or Azula to handle._

[X]

Azula and Ty Lee are back at Iroh's apartment as the final preparations are being made for leaving. Ty Lee played with Kioko for a few moments, and as she watched Azula with her, she felt herself falling in so many kinds of love.

But Azula does not need to fall in love with Ty Lee again. She never stopped.

Now, they are outside, in the cooler air, having a last conversation. Azula knows that Ty Lee is not coming back with her, especially after the murder incident. _But _she is pretty certain that she likes at least _this _part of her future.

She thinks, despite the unknown she despises, that she might get the girl in the time ahead of her.

"Somebody told me that people are made of memories, and they're made up of the memories you have of them, and the memories you make with them," Azula says honestly as she realizes how ridiculous she sounds. She probably should have just had Uncle write her a dumb poem. "I like the memories you're made of."

Azula clenches her jaw and looks away, her heart pounding. She cannot believe this _vulnerability_.

"I like the memories you're made of." Ty Lee moves to kiss Azula but then hesitates. "But I think you better start liking the memories you're made of too, before I make any new ones with you."

"Are you breaking up with me again?" Azula snaps viciously and Ty Lee rolls her eyes.

"No. I'm telling you that you are made of so much more than a few big feats and a couple bad memories that keep you up at night. And that's why I love you, in ways other people don't. Because I see those little tiny memories that make you a _person_."

Azula grimaces. "Well, yes, but your memories with me certainly include less attempted murder and hatred."

Ty Lee laughs and shrugs. She cannot deny that.

"I'm not quite done in Ba Sing Se. I haven't made all the memories I want to. _But_, I am planning on coming to Caldera in a few weeks. I think you should take me on a really nice date to make up for getting me arrested by the Dai Li," Ty Lee says brightly, now grinning.

"My six months are up, and of course, there wasn't a magic breakthrough, huh?" Azula remarks with a mirthless laugh. "I was right."

Ty Lee also cannot deny that some things never change. "Zuko is sweet, but I think it's funny that he thought making you a waitress for six months would suddenly change you and heal wounds that were made over really long years."

"It was a pointless waste. Just like my conquest of Ba Sing Se. A pointless waste."

"You got Kioko."

Azula does nod. "I know."

"And I think Kioko doesn't know a single thing about Princess Azula the Conqueror, or the Crazy Princess. She likes you a lot," Ty Lee says, stroking Azula's wrist gently. "She has a completely clean slate to make memories of you, and I think she already has some pretty good ones from here in Ba Sing Se."

"_Fine_, Kioko aside, even if it didn't make me worse, it didn't make me any better either. It was a waste, and I refuse to lie and say that because I had some emotional outbursts and a few brief revelations about my family and personality, that I am miraculously changed."

Ty Lee frowns in thought. "It's little things that matter most. The ones that add up. Do you think that Ba Sing Se, or the Comet, or your mom leaving you or any of that are the only events that shaped you as a person?"

"They are the major events in your life. They are the memories that actually count, because absolutely everyone has them of me in some ways," Azula argues as she glances at Zuko and Kioko getting very impatient.

"Just stop this whining! It is so ridiculous and selfish to think that you only matter when you're affecting the whole world! These are the reasons why I broke up with you. It was those tiny moments, like weird midnight conversations, and trying new food, and getting into fights and then making up and forgetting what they were even about that made me like you." Ty Lee crosses her arms. "I am way more important than the whole world.

"_Oh,_ and I'm the selfish one," Azula purrs with a small laugh.

"I never said I wasn't." Ty Lee winks.

Azula shrugs, and has to admit she likes that point. "I hate your optimism, but ─ and so help me if you tell _anyone _what I'm about to say to you, you will die ─ I also would hate to be defined just by those moments. And don't start grinning like you're a genius; I don't want to be defined by those moments because they wound up kicking me in the jaw. And I'm telling you this because I want you to date me again."

Ty Lee laughs, because it is true. She does, however, see in Azula's eyes that, while Fire Lord Zuko is probably never going to make her _good_, and while none of this is going to go away in a flash, there are a lot of bits and pieces on the way.

Change creeps up you. Just like most things do.

"Here's a moment to add to your collection," Ty Lee says confidently and Azula cocks an eyebrow.

And she is quite pleasantly surprised when Ty Lee presses her lips against Azula's, and does not break free for several breathless moments.

Zuko's shout from inside interrupts their moment, "Azula, we really have to go. I think Kioko might chew through her suitcases!"

Azula hesitates. "It is your lucky day, because I'm going to tell you _one more_ very private thing, because that kiss was persuasive."

"Mhm?" Ty Lee suppresses a smile.

"If I'm made up by little moments like that, and not my greatest victories and losses," Azula admits quietly, hating how voicing it seems to make it all the more true. "I don't really know how to face what that means."

"What does it mean?" Ty Lee is stunned. One last sentence before Azula leaves, of course, is the only time she shows vulnerability, and shows that this was not the waste she intended it to be.

Azula thinks of the memorial walls, and Jin, and how making a cup of tea felt _exciting_ to her.

"If my importance to others is based on minute instances, I, Princess Azula the Conqueror, am infinitely small."

Ty Lee nudges her and wordlessly gestures at the sky. Azula has no idea how to react to that until Ty Lee replies, just as softly;

"So are stars from this far away. It's all a matter of perspective, princess."

**The End**

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading this far. The ending is quite open, because I really didn't want Azula to be redeemed or fully win Ty Lee in this brief period. It's kind of meant to just be a glimpse into a time of Azula's life where she realizes many things, and confronts her actions, but what she is going to do with those revelations is up in the air., as I think it would probably work in real life (personal opinion, of course). That was my intention of the past five chapters, and I really hope it made sense and the ambiguity isn't disappointing.

I might someday write a sequel, but I've had the ending written for a very long time, and am quite content with it. All that aside, I hope you enjoyed it. :)


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